For him! I was looking in the mirror and coiling my hair when I realized my thought; to my amazement my own face seemed to me almost the face of a stranger. I saw that its thin oval had rounded, the cheeks gained a faint color; animation was in every feature, life anticipant in the eyes. "That's what the change has done so soon; pure air, home life, good food and an abundance of it." I failed to read the first sign. There was nothing for it but to put on the well-worn skirt of brown panama serge, a clean shirt waist and a white four-in-hand. I promised myself not only a warm coat out of the first month's wages, but a light-colored inexpensive dress that would harmonize with the general feeling of youthfulness of which my inner woman was now aware. I sat down at the window to wait for the sound of the pung bells. Soon there was a soft tap at my door. "Come in." Jamie made his appearance with a bunch of partridge berries in his hand. "With Cale's compliments; he found them under the snow in the woods, and hopes you will do him the honor to wear them in your hair. He left them with me just before he went to meet Ewart; I had them under the arm-chair to present to you formally when you should come out of the den; instead of which, you ignominiously--" "Please, don't, Jamie--no coals of fire; give me the lovely things." "But, remember, you are to wear them in your hair, so Cale says." "It's perfectly absurd--but I must do it to please him. Who would credit him with such an attention?" "May I stay while you put them in?" he asked meekly. "Of course you may, you sisterless youth." I parted the bunch, and pinned a spray on each side, in the coils and plaits of my over heavy hair. Jamie said nothing till this finishing touch had been put to my toilet. "I say, it's ripping, Marcia. Cale will be your abject slave from henceforth. By the way, I 've never heard him call you 'Happy', as he proposed to do." "Nor I." "I wonder what's the reason? Perhaps he thought he had been too fresh, and he does n't dare--There 's Ewart!" He was off on a run. I thought I would wait for the various greetings to be over before going down. I felt sure I should not see his hand withdrawn this time, as on the occasion of his first home-coming. When I heard his voice below in the hall, I was aware of a warm thrill of delight, a joyous expectancy of good, a feeling as if the home-coming were my own; for never in my life had I been welcomed as he was, with a shout from Jamie, an outburst from the dogs, and joyful ejaculations from Angélique and Marie. I went down, my cheeks glowing, my heart warm with the home-sense, and--I wondered at myself--my hand outstretched to his. When his closed upon it with the same cordial pressure of the week before, I knew for the first time in my life the joy of being "at home". And I failed to read the second sign. XVI