ty-four days and twenty-three hours in a year, and then in the
odd hour he will flare up Yorkshire like a conflagration."

"English, you mean?"

"No. Yorkshire IS England to grandmother and father. They don't think
anything much of the other counties, and people from them are just
respectable foreigners. You may depend upon it, whatever grandmother
says of Mr. Fred Mostyn, father will believe it, too."

"Your father always believes whatever your grandmother says. Good night,
dear."

"Good night. I think I shall go to grandmother in the morning. I
know how to manage her. I shall meet her squarely with the truth, and
acknowledge that I am dying with curiosity about Mr. Mostyn."

"And she will tease and lecture you, say you are 'not sweetheart high
yet, only a little maid,' and so on. Far better go and talk with Dora.
To-morrow she will need you, I am sure. Ethel, I am very sleepy. Good
night again, dear."

"Good night!" Then with a sudden animation, "I know what to do, I shall
tell grandmother about Dora's marriage. It is all plain enough now.
Good night, Ruth." And this good night, though dropping sweetly into the
minor third, had yet on its final inflection something of the
pleasant hopefulness of its major key--it expressed anticipation and
satisfaction.

What happened in the night session she could not tell, but she awoke
with a positive disinclination to ask a question about Mr. Mostyn. "I
have received orders from some one," she said to Ruth; "I simply do not
care whether I ever see or hear of the man again. I am going to Dora,
and I may not come home until late. You know they will depend upon me
for every suggestion."

In fact, Ethel did not return home until the following day, for a
snowstorm came up in the afternoon, and the girl was weary with planning
and writing, and well inclined to eat with Dora the delicate little
dinner served to them in Dora's private parlor. Then about nine o'clock
Mr. Stanhope called, and Ethel found it pleasant enough to watch the
lovers and listen to Mrs. Denning's opinions of what had been already
planned. And the next day she seemed to be so absolutely necessary
to the movement of the marriage preparations, that it was nearly dark
before she was permitted to return home.

It was but a short walk between the two houses, and Ethel was resolved
to have the refreshment of the exercise. And how good it was to feel the
pinch of the frost and the gust of the north wind, and afte