But the moment Elsie
was free she darted back to the window, just in time to catch a
glimpse, as she supposed, of her brother's well-remembered dark-
gray overcoat, as he was ascending the front steps.
A tall, grave-looking young man, an utter stranger to the place
and family, had his hand upon the doorbell; but before he could
ring it, the door flew open, and a lovely young creature
precipitated herself on his neck, like a missile fired from
heavenly battlements, and a kiss was pressed upon his lips that he
afterward admitted to have felt even to the "toes of his boots."
But his startled manner caused her to lift her face from under his
side-whiskers; and though the dusk was deepening, she could see
that her arms were around an utter stranger. She recoiled from him
with a bound, and trembling like a windflower indeed, her large
blue eyes dilating at the intruder with a dismay beyond words. How
the awkward scene would have ended it were hard to tell had not
the hearty voice of one coming up the path called out:
"Hi, there, you witch! who is that you are kissing, and then
standing off to see the effect?"
There was no mistake this time; so, impelled by love, shame, and
fear of "that horrid man," she fled, half sobbing, to his arms.
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