and I remember Abigail Arnold and Mis'
Holcomb-that-was-Mame-Bliss, and how they followed Abel with little
sharp cries which must have been a kind of music. And with them went
Ellen Ember, as if, secretly, she were wiser than we knew. And while the
others blocked the passage or crowded into the room, according to the
nature which was theirs, some one came from the cellarway and paused,
smiling, on the threshold. And it was Miss Clementina Proudfit, with
eggs in her hands.

"Wait!" I heard Delia's sharp, piping voice then; "wait!"

She rose, one thin little hand pressed tensely along her cheek. But the
other hand Madame Proudfit held in both her own as she, too, rose beside
her. And with them Abel stood, facing the rest.

"O, Abel Halsey--Abel Halsey ..." Delia said, "an' Mame Bliss--nor you,
Abigail, don't you, any of you, come in yet. I got somethin' to tell
you."

"But shake hands first, Delia," cried Abel Halsey, and Delia looked up
at him, in her face a sudden, incredulous thankfulness which flushed it,
brow and cheek, and won it to a way of beauty. But she did not give him
her hand. And before she could speak again Miss Clementina put down the
eggs, and, with some little stir of silk, she took a step or two steps
toward us.

"Ah," she said, "let us not wait for anything--it has been so long since
we have met! Delia has just told mother and me all about these
years--and you don't know how splendid we think she has been and how
brave in great trouble. Come in, everybody, and let's make her welcome
home!"

Madame Proudfit said nothing, but she nodded and smiled at Delia More,
and it seemed to me that in the Proudfits' way with Delia, their
beautiful Linda had won a kind of presence with them after all. And in
the moment's hush the toast, propped on a fork before the coals in the
range, suddenly blazed up in blue flame at the crust.

"Somebody save the toast!" cried Clementina and smiled very brightly.

They needed no more. Timothy Toplady sprang at the toast, and already
Abel Halsey and Doctor June were shaking Delia's hand; and Mis' Amanda,
throwing her shawl back over her shoulders from its pin at her throat,
enveloped Delia in her giant arms. And the others came pushing forward,
on their faces the smiles which, however they had faltered in the
passage seeking a precedent, I make bold to guess bodied forth the
gentle, hesitant spirit which informed them.

As for me, I waited without, even after the others