Conducting him through the wide hall, she ushered him into the drawing-room, where for a time he stood perfectly bewildered. It was his first introduction to rosewood, velvet, and brocatelle, and it seemed to him as if he had suddenly been transported to fairy-land. “Maddy would like this—it’s her nature,” he whispered, advancing a step or two, and setting down his feet as softly as if stepping on eggs. Happening to lift his eyes before one of the long mirrors, he spied himself, wondering much what that “queer looking chap” was doing there in the midst of such elegance, and why Mrs. Noah did not turn him out! Then mentally asking forgiveness for this flash of pride, and determined to make amends, he bowed low to the figure in the glass, which bowed as low in return, but did not reply to the good-natured remark, “How d’ye do—pretty well to-day?” There was a familiar look about the cape of the camlet cloak worn by the man in the glass, and Grandpa Markham’s face turned crimson as the truth burst upon him. “How ’shamed of me Maddy would be,” he thought, glancing sidewise at Mrs. Noah, who had witnessed the blunder, and was now looking from the window to hide her laughter. Grandpa believed she did not see him, and comforted with that assurance he began to remark upon the mirror, saying, “it made it appear as if there was two of you,” a remark which Mrs. Noah fully appreciated. He saw the silk chairs next, and slyly touched one to see if it did feel like the gored, peach-blossom dress worn by his wife forty-two years ago that very spring. Then he tried one of them, examined the rare ornaments in the room and the grand piano, and came near bowing again to the portrait of the first Mrs. Remington, which hung upon the wall. “This will last Maddy a week. I thank you, ma’am. You have added some considerable to the happiness of a young girl, who wouldn’t disgrace even such a room as this,” he said, as he passed into the hall. Mrs. Noah received his thanks graciously and led him to the yard, where Sorrel stood waiting for him. “Odd, but clever as the day is long,” was Mrs. Noah’s comment, as, after seeing him safe out of the yard, she went back to her vegetable oysters, which were in danger of being overdone.