When Harry had finished reading, the colonel gallantly declared that the
story was the best they had had. Mrs. Armstrong received this as a joke,
and begged him not to be so unsparing.

"Ah! Mrs. Armstrong," returned he laughing, "you are not old enough yet,
to know the truth from a joke. Don't you agree with me about the story,
Mrs. Cathcart?"

"I think it is very pretty and romantic. Such men as Uncle Peter are not
very common in the world. The story is not too true to Nature."

This she said in a tone intended to indicate superior acquaintance with
the world and its nature. I fear Mrs. Cathcart and some others whom I
could name, mean by _Nature_ something very bad indeed, which yet an
artist is bound to be loyal to. The colonel however seemed to be of a
different opinion.

"If there never was such a man as Uncle Peter," said he, "there ought to
have been; and it is all the more reason for putting him into a story that
he is not to be found in the world."

"Bravo!" cried I. "You have answered a great question in a few words."

"I don't know," rejoined our host. "Have I? It seems to me as plain as the
catechism."

I thought he might have found a more apt simile, but I held my peace.

Next morning, I walked out in the snow. Since the storm of that terrible
night, it had fallen again quietly and plentifully; and now in the