Page 53 (1/2)

Almost sixteen , when Mabel had gathered roses in the garden walks, and her

brother's return had shaken the deith the bloo of Christmas-day, and the tide of wassail,

the blaze of yule, were high at Ridgeley Without, the fall of snow

that had co heavier and the wind

fiercer In-doors, fires roared and crackled upon every hearth;

there was a stir of busy or merry life in every room About the

spacious fire-place in the "baronial" hall was a wide se people, and before that in the parlor, a cluster of elders,

whose graver talk was enlivened, frohter that tossed into jubilant surf the stream of the juniors'

converse

Nearest theof the line, sat the three

ene Barksdale, placid, dove-eyed, and s as

of yore, very comely with her expression of satisfied prettiness

nobody called vanity, and bedecked in her "second day's dress" of

azure silk and her bridal orna, now pulling the floating curls of a girl-cousin

(every third girl in the country was his cousin, once, twice, or

thrice-removed, and none resented the liberties he, as ain the ear of a bashful

atories as to har latest ad upon the back of his wife's chair, a

listener to as going on, his hand lightly touching her