- "but it'll come
to that."

Winthrop had no power to help it. And the money had been
borrowed for him and Rufus. Most for Rufus. But it had been
for them; and with this added thought of sorrowful care, he
reached Mannahatta with his little sister.

It was early of a cold spring day, the ground white with a
flurry of snow, the air raw, when he brought Winnie from the
steamboat and led her, half frightened, half glad, through the
streets to her new home. Winnie's tongue was very still, her
eyes very busy. Her brother left the eyes to make their own
notes and comments, at least he made none, till they had
reached the corner of Little South St. He made none then; the
door was opened softly, and he brought her up the stairs and
into his room without disturbing or falling in with anybody.
Putting her on a calico-covered settee, Winthrop pulled off
his coat and set about making a fire.

Winnie had cried all the day before and as much of the night
as her poor eyelids could keep awake; and now in a kind of
lull, sat watching him.

"Governor, you'll catch cold --"

"Not if I can make the fire catch," said he quietly.

"But you wanted me to keep on _my_ things."

"Did you want to take them off?"

Winnie sat silent again, shrugging her shoulders to the chill
air. But presently the fire caught, and the premonitory
snapping and crackling of the kindling wood gave notice of a
sudden change of temperature. Winnie's feelings took the
cheery influence of the promise and she began to talk in a
more hearty strain.

"Is this your room, Winthrop?"

"This is my room, Winnie. Yours is there, next to it."

"Through that door?"

"No -- through the entry; -- that is the door of my storehouse."

Winnie got up to look at it.

"'Tisn't a very large storehouse," was her conclusion.

"And not much in it. But the large storehouses are not far
off, Winnie. Shall I leave you here for five minutes, while I
go to get something from one of them?"

"Do you mean out of doors? -- from the shops?"

"Yes. Shall I leave you five minutes?"

"O yes!"

He had come before her and was holding both her hands. Before
he let them go he stooped down and kissed her.

It was not a very common thing for Winthrop to kiss her; and
Winnie sat quieted under the power and the pleasure of it till
the five minutes were run out and he had got back again. His
going and coming was without seeing any one of the house; a
fact owing to Mrs. Nettley's being