and offering her his hand said in reply to her
involuntary exclamation: "I thought it was Katy." "Shall I infer,
then, that I am the less welcome?" and his bright, saucy eyes looked
laughingly into hers. "Business had brought him to Southbridge," he
said, "and it was his intention to take the cars that afternoon for New
York, but having been detained longer than he expected, and not liking
the looks of the hotel arrangements, he had decided to presume upon his
acquaintance with Dr. Grant and spend the night at Linwood. But," and
again his eyes looked straight at Helen, "it rained so hard and the
light from your window was so inviting that I ventured to stop, so here
I am, claiming your hospitality until morning, if convenient; if not, I
will find my way to Linwood."

There was something in this pleasant familiarity which won Uncle Ephraim
at once, and he bade the young man stay, as did Aunt Hannah and Mrs.
Lennox, who now for the first time were presented to Mark Ray. Always
capable of adapting himself to the circumstances around him, Mark did so
now with so much ease and courteousness as to astonish Helen, and partly
thaw the reserve she had assumed when she found the visitor was from the
hated city.

"Are you expecting Mrs. Cameron?" he asked, adding as Helen explained
that she was coming to-morrow: "That is strange. Wilford wrote decidedly
that he should be in New York to-morrow. Possibly, though, he does not
intend himself to stop."

"I presume not," Helen replied, a weight suddenly lifting from her heart
at the prospect of not having to entertain the formidable brother-in-law
who, if he stayed long, would spoil all her pleasure.

Thus at her ease on this point, she grew more talkative, half wishing
that her dress was not a shilling calico, or her hair combed back quite
so straight, giving her that severe look which Morris had said was
unbecoming. It was very smooth and glossy, and even Sybil Grandon would
have given her best diamond to have had in her own natural right the
long heavy coil of hair bound so many times around the back of Helen's
head, ornamented with neither ribbon, comb, nor bow--only a single
geranium leaf, with a white and scarlet blossom, was fastened just
below the ear, and on the side where Mark could see it best, admiring
its effect and forgetting the arrangement of the hair in his admiration
of the well-shaped head, bending so industriously over the work which
Helen had resumed--not croche