Thick and fast from the heavy laden clouds the fringed
snow-flakes had fallen the livelong day, covering sidewalk
and street, doorstep and roof, with one thick vail of
whiteness. As the night closed in, the feathered flakes
ceased to fall, while in the western sky the December sun
left a few red beams, the promise of a fair to-morrow.
In Mr. Hubbell's parlor the astral lamp was lighted, and

[figure description] Page 346.[end figure description]

coals were heaped in the glowing grate, whose bright blaze
rendered still more brilliant the flowers of the costly
Brussels. Curtains of rich damask shaded the windows,
and around the marble center-table were seated our fair
friends, Josephine, Anna, and Delphine, the last of whom
had recently come to spend the winter in the city.

Josephine seemed nervously anxious, starting up at every
sound, and then blushing as she resumed her former
attitude. The cause of her restlessness was, that she was
hourly expecting Mr. M'Gregor, her affianced husband!
Two weeks before she left Lockland he had visited her,
and ere his return she had promised to be his wife, regretting,
meantime, the fatality which left George Granby
across the Atlantic until she was given to another. “If
I could only see him,” thought she, “only have an opportunity
to judge of his merits and my chance of success;”
but it could not be. The ocean lay between them; so
she engaged herself to M'Gregor, with many assurances
of affection, of the sincerity of which our readers can
judge as well as ourselves.

As yet Delphine had no thought that her “beau ideal”
was aught to Josephine, although Anna knew it all.
Compelled by necessity, Josephine had, with many tears
and protestations of grief, confessed her falsehood, and
Anna not only forgave her, but weakly took her again
to her confidence, thinking her sufficiently punished by
the sorrow she professed to have felt on account of her
sin.

M'Gregor had written that he should probably be in
the city that night, and each moment they were expecting
him. At length the sound of a footstep was heard on the
threshold, the door-bell echoed through the hall, Delphine
and Anna exchanged smiles, while Josephine half rose
from her seat, and as the parlor door opened the six eyes

[figure description] Page 347.[end figure description]

of the three girls fell upon—M'Gregor? no, not M'Gregor,
but Jimmy Clayton! He had come to the city on business
for Judge Howland, and had been commissioned by
Mabel to carry a letter to her cousin Delphine, besides
her love, which of course could not be sent in a letter!

Delphine arose to meet him, but not on her did his eye
rest. It wandered on until it fell upon Josephine, to
whom Delphine immediately introduced him. A little
sarcastically he answered, “Thank you, Miss Granby,
but I hardly need an introduction to my own sister!”

“Your sister!” repeated Delphine. “Impossible!”
And she glanced quickly at Josephine, who seeing no escape
sprang forward, overwhelming Jimmy with caresses
and questions concerning Snowdon and its inhabitants,
taking care to inquire after the rich and those whom Delphine
had probably heard of, though she herself had
never exchanged over a dozen words with them.

After a time Jimmy gave Delphine her letter, which
she received with a smile and a glance of her eyes which
made his blood tingle, and when Anna asked him if it
were not unpleasant traveling, he answered, “Quite well,
I thank you!”

By this time Josephine's old coldness had returned.
She was afraid M'Gregor might come, and, although she
was not now ashamed to own her brother, she feared the
result. Jimmy soon arose to go, but Anna insisted upon
his remaining all night. This plan Delphine warmly seconded,
and Jimmy began to waver. He looked at his
sister, one word from whom would have decided the matter,
but that word was not spoken, and Jimmy departed,
saying he would call again on the morrow.

Scarcely had the door closed after him when Delphine
looked sternly and inquiringly at Josephine, who, in the
most theatrical manner, fell upon her knees, sobbing out

[figure description] Page 348.[end figure description]

the confession of her falsehood, and finishing by saying,
“Do not betray me to M'Gregor, will you?”

“M'Gregor!” repeated Delphine scornfully, “You
wrong him if you suppose he would love you less for
your poverty.”

“'Tis not that, 'tis not that,” said Josephine, and Delphine
continued: “But he would despise you for scorning
your own parents, and refusing to own a brother of
whom you should be proud.”

“But you will not betray me?” persisted Josephine.
“Promise that you will not, and a falsehood shall never
again sully my lips.”

“Of course I shall not tell M'Gregor,” answered Delphine,
“but it will be long ere I can again respect you.”
Here Anna interposed a word for her friend, saying that
“Delphine had never known what it was to contend with
poverty, and have the cold finger of scorn pointed at
her—”

“And if I had,” interrupted Delphine, “I should not
revenge myself by pointing my finger at my parents and
brother.”

There now ensued an embarrassed silence, and, as it
was past the hour for M'Gregor to arrive, Josephine repaired
to her room, gratified to think that if her sin had
found her out, M'Gregor had not.

The next day M'Gregor did not come, but Jimmy did,
and as he was about to leave, he asked Josephine to accompany
him home, saying his mother would be delighted to
see her. Delphine waited for Josephine's answer, that
she could not go, as she was expecting a friend, and
then said, “Suppose, Mr. Clayton, you take me as a substitute.”

“You!” exclaimed Anna. “You go to Snowdon!”

[figure description] Page 349.[end figure description]

“Yes; why not,” answered Delphine. “Mabel is anxious
to see me, and the sleighing is fine.”

Accordingly, next morning, Jimmy's sleigh stood before
Mr. Hubbell's door, and Delphine, warmly wrapped
in furs and merinos, tripped down the steps, and was
soon seated by Jimmy, whose polite attentions during
the ride only increased the estimation in which she held
him.

The same day that Delphine left the city, M'Gregor
came, overjoyed to meet his beautiful Josephine, whom,
with strange infatuation, he sincerely loved. That evening,
as they sat alone in the parlor, Josephine, fearing
that in some way he might discover the falsehood, determined
to tell him herself. In the smoothest manner possible,
she told her story, saying that her parents now
lived in Snowdon, but intimated that they had not always
resided there. Jimmy was then mentioned, and
acknowledged to be her brother, although she said that
he had been long in Judge Howland's office ere she knew
of it.

M'Gregor heard her through, and then drawing her
more closely toward him, assured her that he did not love
her less for being poor, for he had never supposed her
rich, and ended by proposing to accompany her to Snowdon.
The proposal was made in such a way that Josephine
could not refuse, but she determined not to go, for
though M'Gregor might love her with poverty in the distance,
she fancied that a sight of the “old gable-roof”
and “shoemaker's shop” would at once drive him from
her. The next day was fixed upon for the journey, but
when the morning came, Josephine did not appear at the
breakfast table, sending word that she was suffering
from an attack of the influenza! Snowdon of course
was given up, and M'Gregor paced the long parlors,

p598-355 [figure description] Page 350.[end figure description]

inquiring every ten minutes for Josephine, who knew
enough not to be convalescent too soon, and all day
long did penance by keeping her bed and drinking herb
tea.