betraying a tendency to sit down on a snowbank
and whimper, and shook her briskly. "You'll be going to sleep next.
Stay, hold your tongues, all of you--what's that?"

It was the sound of sleigh bells. Coming down toward them out of the
darkness was a sleigh with a single occupant. "Hold down your heads,
girls: if it's anybody that knows us, we're lost." But it was not, for a
voice strange to their ears, but withal very kindly and pleasant, asked
if its owner could be of any help to them. As they turned toward him,
they saw it was a man wrapped in a handsome sealskin cloak, wearing
a sealskin cap; his face, half-concealed by a muffler of the same
material, disclosing only a pair of long mustaches, and two keen
dark eyes. "It's a son of old Santa Claus!" whispered Addy. The girls
tittered audibly as they tumbled into the sleigh; they had regained
their former spirits. "Where shall I take you?" said the stranger
quietly. There was a hurried whispering; and then Kate said boldly, "To
the Institute." They drove silently up the hill, until the long, ascetic
building loomed up before them. The stranger reined up suddenly. "You
know the way better than I," he said. "Where do you go in?" "Through the
back window," said Kate with sudden and appalling frankness. "I see!"
responded their strange driver quietly and, alighting quickly, removed
the bells from the horses. "We can drive as near as you please now,"
he added by way of explanation. "He certainly is a son of Santa Claus,"
whispered Addy. "Hadn't we better ask after his father?" "Hush!" said
Kate decidedly. "He is an angel, I dare say." She added with a delicious
irrelevance, which was, however, perfectly understood by her feminine
auditors, "We are looking like three frights."

Cautiously skirting the fences, they at last pulled up a few feet from
a dark wall. The stranger proceeded to assist them to alight. There
was still some light from the reflected snow; and as he handed his fair
companions to the ground, each was conscious of undergoing an intense
though respectful scrutiny. He assisted them gravely to open the window,
and then discreetly retired to the sleigh until the difficult and
somewhat discomposing ingress was made. He then walked to the window.
"Thank you and good night!" whispered three voices. A single figure
still lingered. The stranger leaned over the window sill. "Will you
permit me to light my cigar here? It might attract attention if I struck
a match