St. Claire will
keep his clothes when he occupies his den. You must not let any
one else in here, for Arthur might be offended."
Mrs. Johnson promised obedience, and turning the rusty key,
followed her visitor down the two long flights of stairs, she,
returning to her duties, while Grace went to the pleasant library,
where, with her hat and whip upon the floor, Edith sat reading the
book she had ventured to take from the well-filled shelves, and in
which she had been so absorbed as not to hear the slight rustling
in the adjoining room, where a young man was standing in the
enclosure of the deep bay window, and gazing intently at her. He
had heard from Mrs. Johnson's daughter that some ladies were going
over the house, and not caring to meet them, he stepped into the
recess of the window just as Edith entered the library. As the eye
of the stranger fell upon her, he came near uttering an
exclamation of surprise that anything so graceful, so queenly, and
withal so wondrously beautiful, should be found in Shannondale,
which, with the city ideas still clinging to him, seemed like an
out-of-the-way place, where the girls were buxom, good-natured and
hearty, just as he remembered Kitty Maynard to have been, and not
at all like this creature of rare loveliness sitting there before
him, her head inclined gracefully to the volume she was reading,
and showing to good advantage her magnificent hair.
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