"No, indeed they were not," said Miriam, very decidedly.
"I've made a fire in the parlor," said Phoebe, coming in, "if you all want to sit there afore you go to bed."
"I don't want to sit anywhere," cried Miriam, "and I am crazy to get a peep out of doors. Come on, Ralph, just for a minute."
Ralph followed her out on the piazza.
"It's awfully dark," said Miriam, "but if we walk carefully, I think we can get far enough away from the house to look up at it, and find out a little what it looks like."
They groped their way across the driveway, and on to the grass beyond.
"We can see a good deal of it against the sky!" exclaimed Miriam. "What tall pillars! It looks like a Greek temple in front. And from what I can make out, it's pretty much all front."
"I suppose it is a regular old-fashioned house," said her brother, "with a Grecian portico front, and perhaps another at the back. But you must come in now, for you have on neither hat nor wrap." And he took her by the hand.
"It isn't cold," said Miriam, "and oh, Ralph, look up at the stars. Those are our stars, every one of them."
Ralph laughed, as he led her into the house.