Mary Standish's eyes were shining, and she clapped her hands when she saw that he had observed her.

He tried to laugh, and waved his hand, but he felt too foolish to go to her.

And then the balloon went up, a big, six-foot balloon, and with all its fire made only a pale glow in the sky, and after another hour of hand-shaking, shoulder-clapping, and asking of questions about health and domestic matters, Alan went to his cabin.
He looked about the one big room that was his living-room, and it never had seemed quite so comforting as now.

At first he thought it was as he had left it, for there was his desk where it should be, the big table in the middle of the room, the same pictures on the walls, his gun-rack filled with polished weapons, his pipes, the rugs on the floor--and then, one at a time, he began to observe things that were different.

In place of dark shades there were soft curtains at his windows, and new covers on his table and the home-made couch in the corner.