"Even so, my dear Agnes, and believe me, that we all felt as much shocked as you look."
"But," said I, fixing my eyes upon her face, where the flickering firelight made the shadows play, "the stranger has not been able to retain the peaceable possession of his purchase!"
"What—what mean you, Agnes!" exclaimed Mathilde, in alarm.
"I mean that the late proud lady of Wolfbrake still carries the keys, and unlocks doors at will!"
"Heavens! do you know that?"
"Ay! I know much more than that. I know the portrait that performed the humiliating office of firescreen in the next room is the likeness of the haughty Madeleine Van Der Vaughan! I know, beside——"
"What more do you know?"
"That our travelers have arrived!" I said, as the sound of footsteps and voices at the hall door fell upon my ear.
It was true. We were interrupted.
As if "borne on the wings of love," the slow old stage-coach was so much earlier that evening that our friends arrived an hour earlier than we had expected them, while Mrs. Legare was still superintending the arrangement of her supper-table, and Mr. Legare was grating nutmeg over his huge bowl of eggnog, so there was no one to welcome the visitors except Mathilde and myself.