II-XIII

When Gordon returned to his dwelling
he found Sim Caley and his sister's
husband taking the horse from the
shafts of a dusty, two-seated carriage. Rutherford
Berry was a slightly-built man with high, narrow
shoulders, and a smooth, pasty-white face. He was
clerk in a store at the farther end of Greenstream
valley, and had flat, fragile wrists and a constant,
irritating cough.

"H'y, Gord!" he shouted; "your sister wanted
to visit with you over night, and see Lettice. We
only brought two -- the oldest and Barnwell K."

The "oldest," Gordon recalled, was the girl who
had worn Clare's silk waist and "run the colors";
Barnwell K. Berry was, approximately, ten.

"That's right," he returned cordially. He assisted
in running the carriage back by the shed.
Lettice and his sister were stiffly facing each other
in the sitting room. The latter had a fine, thin
countenance with pale hair drawn tightly back and
fastened under a small hat pinned precariously
aloft; her eyes were steady, like his own. She wore
a black dress ornamented with large carmine dots,

[[221]]

p220 _ -chap- _ toc-1 _ p221w _ toc-2 _ +chap+ _ p222

v?