Celestia Ann had seated herself beside a lamp burning on a distant table, and was industriously plying her needle.
"Come, give us a lively toon, Miss Milly, won't ye?" she said. "'Yankee Doodle,' or 'Hail Colomby,' or some o' them toons folks dances to."
"Which or what will you have, Mr. Ormsby?" asked Mildred.
"I?" he said, with a smile; "oh, I own to sharing Miss Hunsinger's partiality for our national airs, and am well satisfied with the selections already made."
Mildred gave them in succession.
A tall man with a book under his arm stood in a listening attitude at the gate. Mrs. Keith, seeing him from an upper window, came down and opened the front door.
"Good evening, Mr. Lightcap," she said in her pleasant voice, "won't you come in out of the cold?"
"I come to fetch back your book, Mrs. Keith," he said, moving toward her with long strides, "and I thought I'd not disturb the folks in your parlor by knockin' whilst that music was agoin'. I'm a thousand times obleeged fer the loan o' the book, ma'am;" and he handed it to her, then lifted his cap as if in adieu.
"No, no; don't go yet," she said. "I have another book for you, and you must have some more of the music, if you care to hear it, without standing in the cold to listen."
Her pleasant cordiality put him at his ease, and he followed her into the parlor.