along; Thursday comes: the
boat arrives in a pouring storm toward midnight.]

At last there was a knock at the door and the anxious family jumped to
open it. Two negro men entered, each carrying a trunk, and proceeded
upstairs toward the guest-room. Then followed a stupefying apparition--a
double-headed human creature with four arms, one body, and a single
pair of legs! It--or they, as you please--bowed with elaborate foreign
formality, but the Coopers could not respond immediately; they were
paralyzed. At this moment there came from the rear of the group a
fervent ejaculation--"My lan'!"--followed by a crash of crockery,
and the slave-wench Nancy stood petrified and staring, with a tray
of wrecked tea-things at her feet. The incident broke the spell,
and brought the family to consciousness. The beautiful heads of the
new-comer bowed again, and one of them said with easy grace and dignity:

"I crave the honor, madam and miss, to introduce to you my brother,
Count Luigi Capello," (the other head bowed) "and myself--Count Angelo;
and at the same time offer sincere apologies for the lateness of our
coming, which was unavoidable," and both heads bowed again.

The poor old lady was in a whirl of amazement and confusion, but she
managed to stammer out:

"I'm sure I'm glad to make your acquaintance, sir--I mean, gentlemen.
As for the delay, it is nothing, don't mention it. This is my daughter
Rowena, sir--gentlemen. Please step into the parlor and sit down
and have a bite and sup; you are dreadful wet and must be
uncomfortable--both of you, I mean."

But to the old lady's relief they courteously excused themselves, saying
it would be wrong to keep the family out of their beds longer; then each
head bowed in turn and uttered a friendly good night, and the singular
figure moved away in the wake of Rowena's small brothers, who bore
candles, and disappeared up the stairs.

The widow tottered into the parlor and sank into a chair with a gasp,
and Rowena followed, tongue-tied and dazed. The two sat silent in the
throbbing summer heat unconscious of the million-voiced music of the
mosquitoes, unconscious of the roaring gale, the lashing and thrashing
of the rain along the windows and the roof, the white glare of the
lightning, the tumultuous booming and bellowing of the thunder;
conscious of nothing but that prodigy, that uncanny apparition that
had come and gone so suddenly--that weird strange thing that was so
soft-spoken a