CHAPTER III

THE NEWCOMER


At three o'clock on the afternoon of the twelfth of October the
Hamilton house was very still. Mrs. Hamilton had gone into town,
the housemaid was taking her "afternoon out," and the cook, who
had been kept awake by toothache the night before, was enjoying a
nap.

Just about this time Arthur peered cautiously from his room. No one
being in sight he came out slowly and carefully on his crutches.
"I can do miles of exercise in this hall," he said to himself with
grim satisfaction, "as long as there is no one to watch me."

He went up and down once, and then with great effort for a second
time. Just as he was about ready to start again, the door-bell rang.
He went carefully toward the door of his own room, always afraid
of toppling over, and paused when he got there to listen. The bell
rang again, this time more insistently, and he wondered impatiently
where Katie and Ellen were, and why some one didn't go to the door.
A third peal of the bell sent him back to the hall window. From
there he could see the depot carriage with a trunk on the back, and
the driver looking expectantly at the house. He could hear voices
on the steps below, but could see no one until, after a fourth
ring, a gentleman and a young girl went slowly down the steps and
stood looking back at the house.