seemed to her that all record of her past experience had been
effaced: her very footprints of an hour before were lost; the gray
wall on which she leaned was white and spotless now; even the
familiar farm-shed looked dim and strange and ghostly. Had she
been there? had she seen the captain? was it all a fancy? She
scarcely knew.

A sudden gust of wind closed the door behind them with a crash, and
sent Mistress Thankful, with a slight feminine scream, forward into
the outer darkness. But the baron caught her by the waist, and
saved her from Heaven knows what imaginable disaster; and the scene
ended in a half-hysterical laugh. But the wind then set upon them
both with a malevolent fury; and the baron was, I presume, obliged
to draw her closer to his side.

They were alone, save for the presence of those mischievous
confederates, Nature and Opportunity. In the half-obscurity of the
storm she could not help turning her mischievous eyes on his. But
she was perhaps surprised to find them luminous, soft, and, as it
seemed to her at that moment, grave beyond the occasion. An
embarrassment utterly new and singular seized upon her; and when,
as she half feared yet half expected, he bent down and pressed his
lips to hers, she was for a moment powerless. But in the next
instant she boxed his ears sharply, and vanished in the darkness.
When Mr. Blossom opened the door to the baron he was surprised to
find that gentleman alone, and still more surprised to find, when
they re-entered the house, to see Mistress Thankful enter at the
same moment, demurely, from the front door.

When Mr. Blossom knocked at his daughter's door the next morning it