I don't believe they'll be goin' to have any thing better, do you, Stephen ?" Stephen walked very suddenly to the fire, and made a feint of rearranging it, that he might turn his face entirely away from his mother's sight.

He was almost dumb with astonishment.

A certain fear mingled with it.

What meant this sudden change?
Did it portend good or evil?
It seemed too sudden, too inexplicable, to be genuine.

Stephen had yet to learn the magic power which Mercy Philbrick had to compel the liking even of people who did not choose to like her.
"Why, yes, mother," he said, "that would be very nice.