We were very near Gertie’s home, and the excited child pointed toward an open barouche which had turned the corner and was just opposite the cottage. I recognized Colonel Schuyler at once, but not for an instant did my gaze rest on him; it wandered to the lady at his side, the peerless creature whose fine-cut face, framed in masses of golden-brown hair, was white and pure as a water-lily, and whose dark eyes scanned eagerly the cottage and its surroundings, and then rested upon Gertie and myself with a curious, wondering look. “I mean to throw her this as a welcome,” Gertie cried, and the bouquet gathered from Abelard’s grave went whirling through the air, and fell directly in Edith’s lap, while Gertie snatched her bonnet from her head and shook it toward the carriage, her hair falling in rippling waves around her shoulders, and her face radiant with joy. How the lady’s eyes gleamed, while the expression of her face and the wondrous smile which wreathed her lips and showed her white, even teeth, I never shall forget. She held the bouquet in her hand, and we heard her distinctly utter the word “thanks,” as the carriage went rapidly by. Twice she looked back, the same smile on her face and the same pleased look in her eye, as Gertie kissed the tips of her fingers and threw them toward her. “Isn’t she beautiful?” Gertie asked. “Yes, very beautiful, I replied,” as I stood looking after her, and wondering at the opinion so different held of her at Schuyler Hill, and wondering, too, what they would think of her when they found what she was like. Afterward I heard from one and another what they thought, and said, and did, and will narrate in CHAPTER XXVI. HOW THEY RECEIVED HER. On their return from the cottage the previous night, Alice and Emma found that during their absence a telegram had come from Colonel Schuyler, who said he should be home the following day, and asked that the carriage might meet him at the station. Miss Rossiter, of course, did not sleep a wink, and came down to breakfast looking frightfully haggard and yellow, while Julia was pale and subdued, and Emma showed traces of tears. It was almost as bad as the day of the first Mrs. Schuyler’s funeral, and only Mrs. Tiffe and Perry showed any signs of interest in the coming event.