ife," was the gentleman's
comment as the train started.

"Pretty faces go a great way always with you men!" answered his wife.

"There is something more than a pretty face there. And she is
improved--changed, somehow--since a year ago. What do you think now of
your brother's choice, Julia?"

"It would have been his ruin!" said the lady violently.

"I declare I doubt it. I am afraid he'll never find a better. I am
afraid you have done him mistaken service."

"George, this girl is _nobody_."

"She is a lady. And she is intelligent, and she is cultivated, and she
has excellent manners. I see no fault at all to be found. Tom does not
need money."

"She is nobody, nevertheless, George! It would have been miserable for
Tom to lose all the advantage he is going to have with his wife, and to
marry this girl whom no one knows, and who knows nobody."

"I am sorry for poor Tom!"

"George, you are very provoking. Tom will live to thank mamma and me
all his life."

"Do you know, I don't believe it. I am glad to see _she's_ all right,
anyhow. I was afraid at the Isles she might have been bitten."

"You don't know anything about it," returned his wife sharply. "Women
don't show. _I_ think she was taken with Tom."

"I hope not!" said the gentleman; "that's all I have to say."

CHAPTER XXXII.

A VISITOR.

After that summer day, the time sped on smoothly at Shampuashuh; until
the autumn coolness had replaced the heat of the dog days, and hay
harvest and grain harvest were long over, and there began to be a
suspicion of frost in the air. Lois had gathered in her pears, and was
garnering her apples. There were two or three famous apple trees in the
Lothrop old garden, the fruit of which kept sound and sweet all through
the winter, and was very good to eat.

One fair day in October, Mrs. Barclay, wanting to speak with Lois, was
directed to the garden and sought her there. The day was as mild as
summer, without summer's passion, and without spring's impulses of hope
and action. A quiet day; the air was still; the light was mellow, not
brilliant; the sky was clear, but no longer of an intense blue; the
little racks of cloud were lying supine on its calm depths, apparently
having nowhere to go and nothing to do. The driving, sweeping, changing
forms of vapour, which in spring had come with rain and in summer had
come with thunder, had all disappeared; and these little delicate lines
of cloud lay purposeless and