A girl had darted out of a room upon the ground-floor at the sound of the opening door, and she gave quick reply. “No, but we are expecting them every minute. I’m glad you are back, North. Father always likes to see you first thing.” The young man was divesting himself of his overcoat in the hall. He was a broad-shouldered muscular fellow, with very much the same stamp of features as his father, only that as he was clean-shaven, all but a moustache, the square outline of the jaw could be more distinctly seen. It was not a handsome face, but it was a strong one, and there was a gleam of humour in the brown eyes which redeemed it alike from heaviness and sternness. The sister was a merry-looking girl of about twenty, with the family features, a little square in outline, but she had a tip-tilted nose, “a snub,” as the brothers called it, which gave her an expression of sauciness not at all contradicted by the dancing light in her eyes. “Come in and warm yourself. The wind has been bitter all day. We must wait tea for the travellers. Any news in town?” North walked into the long drawing-room, which occupied all the space through the house on one side of the hall. The house, though it now stood in a street, was detached from its neighbours, and showed in many of its arrangements that it had once been a gentleman’s country abode. It was old-fashioned and a little dark, but it wore a homelike aspect; and the room, which was panelled half-way up in sombre oak, was filled with the dancing light from a blazing fire of logs. There were three persons in the room when the brother and sister entered. Mrs. Thomas Cossart (who was generally known in the place as Mrs. Tom, on account of the other Mrs. Cossart up at the big house) was knitting in her arm-chair with a book beside her. She was a matronly lady, with a pleasant face, which had been beautiful in youth, and was still quite comely. Her elder daughter Raby stood with a screen in her hand shielding her face from the blaze, and another son lounged upon the sofa, his hands clasped behind his head. It was sometimes said of the Cossarts by their friends, that North and Ray were the useful ones in the family, and Raby and Cyril the ornamental. Raby was tall and slight, and took after her mother. Without being a beauty she was a decidedly good-looking girl, and had many admirers of both sexes. She dressed always a little better and more carefully than her sister; but she was not really either useless or idle. She had plenty of fun in her, and good nature too. But she had a greater love of admiration and amusement than that possessed by Ray.