There was something in Arthur’s white face which Frank could not resist, and though he had no idea that anything would come of it, he promised that John should go.

‘Oh, Frank,’ Arthur exclaimed, his face brightening at once, ’you have made me so happy!  My headache is quite gone,’ and then he began to plan for the dinner, which was to be more elaborate than usual, and served an hour later, so as to give plenty of time for Gretchen to rest and dress herself if she wished to do so.

‘And she will when she sees the lovely dress I have for her,’ he thought to himself, and after his brother had gone he went to the large closet where he kept the long black trunk which he called Gretchen’s, and into which Dolly’s curious eyes had never looked, although she longed to know the contents.

This Arthur now opened, and had Dolly been there she would have held her breath in wonder at the many beautiful things it contained.  Folded in one of the trays, as only a French packer accustomed to the business could have arranged it, was an exquisite dinner-dress of salmon-colored satin, with a brocaded front and jacket of blue and gold, and here and there a knot of duchess lace, which gave it a more airy effect.  This Arthur took out carefully and laid upon the bed in his sleeping-apartment, together with every article of the toilet necessary to such a dress, from a lace pocket handkerchief to a pair of pale-blue silk hose, which he kissed reverently as he whispered to himself: 

’Dear little feet, which, no doubt, are so cold now in the wretched car; but they will never be cold when once I have them here.’

He was talking in German, as he always did when Gretchen was the subject of his thought, and so Dolly, who came to say that some things which he had ordered for dinner were impossible now, could not understand him, but she caught a glimpse of the dress upon the bed, and advanced quickly toward the open door, exclaiming: 

‘Oh, Arthur, what a lovely gown!  Whose—?’

But before she completed her question Arthur was upon the threshold and had closed the door, saying as he did so: 

’It is Gretchen’s.  I had it made at Worth’s.  She is coming to-night, you know.’

Dolly had heard from her husband of Arthur’s fancy, and though she had no faith in it, she replied: 

’Yes, Frank told me you were expecting her again, and I came to say that we cannot get the fish you ordered, for no one can go to town in this storm, and I doubt if we could find it if we did.  You will have to skip the fish.’

‘All right; all right.  Gretchen will be too much excited to care,’ Arthur replied, standing with his hand upon the door-knob until Dolly left the room and went to this kitchen, where Frank was interviewing the coachman.

He had found that important personage before the fire, bending nearly double and complaining bitterly of a fall he had just had on his way from the stable to the house.  According to his statement, the wind had taken him up bodily, and carrying him a dozen rods or so, had set him down heavily upon a stone flowerpot which was left outside in the winter, nearly breaking his back, as he declared.  This did not look very promising for the drive to the station, and Frank opened the business hesitatingly, and asked John what he thought of it.