small
mouth, "he comes!"

There was the clear roll of wheels along the smooth, frozen carriage
sweep towards the house, the sharp crisp click of hoofs on stone, the
opening of heavy doors, the sudden sparkling invasion of frigid air, the
uplifting of voices in greeting,--but all familiar! There were Gabriel
Lane's cheery, hopeful tones, the soprano of Cousin Jane and Cousin
Emma, the baritone of Mr. Gunn, and the grave measured oratorical
utterance of Parson Dexter, who had joined the party at the station; but
certainly the accents of no STRANGER. Had he come? Yes, for his name
was just then called, and the quick ear of Marie had detected a light,
lounging, alien footstep cross the cold strip of marble vestibule. The
two girls exchanged a rapid glance; each looked into the mirror, and
then interrogatively at the other, nodded their heads affirmatively, and
descended to the drawing-room. A group had already drawn round the fire,
and a small central figure, who, with its back turned towards them,
was still enwrapped in an enormous overcoat of rich fur, was engaged in
presenting an alternate small varnished leather boot to the warmth of
the grate. As they entered the room the heavy fur was yielded up with
apparent reluctance, and revealed to the astonished girls a man of
ordinary stature with a slight and elegant figure set off by a traveling
suit of irreproachable cut. His light reddish-yellow hair, mustache,
and sunburned cheek, which seemed all of one color and outline, made it
impossible to detect the gray of the one or the hollowness of the other,
and gave no indication of his age. Yet there was clearly no mistake.
Here was Gabriel Lane seizing their nervously cold fingers and
presenting them to their "Uncle Sylvester."

Far from attempting to kiss Kitty, the stranger for an instant seemed
oblivious of the little hand she offered him in the half-preoccupied
bow he gave her. But Marie was not so easily passed over, and, with her
audacious face challenging his, he abstractedly imparted to the shake of
her hand something of the fervor that he should have shown his relative.
And, then, still warming his feet on the fender, he seemed to have
forgotten them both.

"Accustomed as you have been, sir," said the Reverend Mr. Dexter,
seizing upon an awkward silence, and accenting it laboriously, "perhaps
I should say INURED as you have been to the exciting and stirring
incidents of a lawless and adventurous community, you dou