whatever might be their keeping as to propriety and taste, were
admirably kept as to all the purposes of use and comfort. They were
clean and glittering in the strong light of the apartment.

Compared with the chill aspect of the December night without, the
warmth and brilliancy of the apartment produced an effect that was not
unlike enchantment. Her eye had not time to detect, in detail, the
little errors which in truth existed, but was glancing around her in
de light, when an object arrested her view that was in strong contrast
to the smiling faces and neatly attired person ages who had thus
assembled to do honor to the heiress of Templeton.

In a corner of the hall near the grand entrance stood the young
hunter, unnoticed, and for the moment apparently forgotten. But even
the forgetfulness of the Judge, which, under the influence of strong
emotion, had banished the recollection of the wound of this stranger,
seemed surpassed by the absence of mind in the youth himself. On
entering the apartment, be had mechanically lifted his cap, and
exposed a head covered with hair that rivalled, in color and gloss,
the locks of Elizabeth. Nothing could have wrought a greater
transformation than the single act of removing the rough fox-skin cap.
If there was much that was prepossessing in the countenance of the
young hunter, there was something even noble in the rounded outlines
of his head and brow. The very air and manner with which the member
haughtily maintained itself over the coarse and even wild attire in
which the rest of his frame was clad, bespoke not only familiarity
with a splendor that in those new settlements was thought to be
unequalled, but something very like contempt also.

The hand that held the cap rested lightly on the little ivory-mounted