The disappointment which Blue and Red experienced in finding that the handsome youth was a dentist by profession was made up for by the ecstasy of amusement it caused them to think of his desiring to set up his business in their house.  They would almost have forgiven Fate if she had withdrawn her latest novelty as suddenly as she had sent him, because his departure would have enabled them to give vent to the mirth the suppression of which was, at that moment a pain almost as great as their girlish natures could bear.

Oh, no, Mrs. Rexford said, they had no rooms to let in the house.

The stranger muttered something under his breath, which to an acute ear might have sounded like “Oh, Jemima!” but he looked so very disconsolate they could not help being sorry for him as he immediately replied, soberly enough, “I am sorry.  I can’t think of any place else to go, ma’am.  I’m real tired, for I’ve been walking this long time in the loose snow.  Will you permit me to sit and rest for a time on the doorstep right outside here till I can think what I better do next?”

Blue fingered the back of a chair nervously.

“Take a chair by the stove and rest yourself,” said Mrs. Rexford.  She had a dignity about her in dealing with a visitor that was not often apparent in other circumstances.  She added, “We have too lately been strangers ourselves to wish to turn any one weary from our door.”  Then, in whispered aside, “Dry your dishes, girls.”

The dignity of bearing with which she spoke to him altered as she threw her head backward to give this last command.

“I thank you from my heart, madam.”  The young man bowed—­that is, he made an angle of himself for a moment.  He moved the chair to which she had motioned him, but did not sit down.  “It is impossible for me to sit,” said he, fervently, “while a lady stands.”

The quaintness and novelty in his accent made them unable to test his manners by any known standard.  For all they knew, the most cultured inhabitant of Boston, New York, or Washington might have behaved precisely in this way.

“Sit down, mamma,” whispered Blue and Red, with praiseworthy consideration for their mother’s fatigue; “we’ll finish the dishes.”

The girls perceived what, perhaps, the stranger had already perceived, that if their mother consented to sit there was a chance of a more equal conversation.  And Mrs. Rexford sat down.  Her mind had been unconsciously relieved from the exercise of great dignity by the fact that the stranger did not appear to notice her daughters, apparently assuming that they were only children.

“It is real kind of you, ma’am, to be so kind to me.  I don’t think any lady has seemed so kind to me since I saw my own mother last.”

He looked pensively at the stove.

“Your mother lives in the United States, I suppose.”  He shook his head sadly.  “In heaven now.”