On a cloudy December morning a gentleman, two ladies, and a boy
stepped down from the express train at a station just above the
Highlands on the Hudson. A double sleigh, overflowing with luxurious
robes, stood near, and a portly coachman with difficulty restrained
his spirited horses while the little party arranged themselves for
a winter ride. Both the ladies were young, and the gentleman's
anxious and almost tender solicitude for one of them seemed hardly
warranted by her blooming cheeks and sprightly movements. A close
observer might soon suspect that his assiduous attentions were
caused by a malady of his own rather than by indisposition on her
part.

The other young lady received but scant politeness, though seemingly
in greater need of it. But the words of Scripture applied to
her beautiful companion, "Whosoever hath, to him shall be given,
and he shall have more abundance." She had been surfeited all her
life with attention, and though she would certainly have felt its
absence, as she would the loss of wealth, life-long familiarity
with both led her to place no special value upon them.

Therefore during the half-hour's ride her spirits rose with the
rapid motion, and even the leaden sky and winter's bleakness could
not prevent the shifting landscape from being a source of pleasure
to her city eyes, while the devotion of her admirer or lover was
received as a matter of course.

The frosty air brought color into her companion's usually pale
face, but not of an attractive kind, for the north-east wind that