tival;
thought was given to it in June, preparation for it began in September.
Many a call was made at the house on that day which neither Miss
Margaretta, nor her niece, Mrs. Lorrington, attracted, but rather the
old-time dishes and the old-time punch on their dining-room table. Old
men with gouty feet, amateur antiquarians of mild but obstinate aspect,
to whom Helen was "a slip of a girl," and Miss Margaretta still too
youthful a person to be of much interest, called regularly on the old
Dutch holiday, and tasted this New-Year's punch. They cherished the idea
that they were thus maintaining the "solid old customs," and they spoke
to each other in moist, husky under-tones when they met in the hall, as
much as to say, "Ah, ah! you here? That's right--that's right. A
barrier, sir--a barrier against modern innovation!"

Helen had several friends besides Anne to assist her in receiving, and
the young island girl remained, therefore, more or less unnoticed, owing
to her lack of the ready, graceful smiles and phrases which are the
current coin of New-Year's Day. She passed rapidly through the different
phases of timidity, bewilderment, and fatigue; and then, when more
accustomed to the scene, she regained her composure, and even began to
feel amused. She ceased hiding behind the others; she learned to repeat
the same answers to the same questions without caring for their inanity;
she gave up trying to distinguish names, and (like the others) massed
all callers into a constantly arriving repetition of the same person,
who was to be treated with a cordiality as impersonal as it was
glittering. She tried to select Mr. Dexter, and at length decided that
he was a certain person standing near Helen--a man with brown hair and
eyes; but she was not sure, and Helen's manner betrayed nothing.

The fatiguing day was over at last, and then followed an hour or two of
comparative quiet; the few familiar guests who remained were glad to
sink down in easy-chairs, and enjoy connected sentences again. The faces
of the ladies showed fine lines extending from the nostril to the chin;
the muscles that had smiled so much were weary.

And now Anne discovered Gregory Dexter; and he was not the person she
had selected. Mr. Dexter was a tall, broad-shouldered man, with an
appearance of persistent vigor in his bearing, and a look of
determination in his strong, squarely cut jaw and chin. His face was
rather short, with good features and clear gray e