was still the beautiful hostess--never more beautiful, never so
winning before. No one noticed that, by her orders, or her
husband's, the window through which she had beheld the goblin visage
was closely curtained. Or, this may have been an accidental
disposition of the drapery, since no trace of her momentary alarm
remained in her countenance or demeanor.

In the kitchen a double allowance of toddy was served out, by their
master's orders, to the men who had taken part in the interment on
the hill-top. And, in their noisy talk over their potations the
vagrant was scarcely mentioned.

Only the pines, hoarser in their sough, by reason of the falling
snow that clogged their boughs, chanted a requiem above the rough
hillock at their feet.

"Man cometh in with vanity, and departeth in darkness, and his name
is covered with darkness!"






CHAPTER X.

ROSA.