When supper was over, and there was no longer an excuse for lingering, she found, very greatly to her surprise and chagrin, no doubt, that the clouds, which all day had looked dark and angry, were now pouring rain.
"What shall I do ?" she exclaimed in great apparent distress; then stepping to the door of the sitting-room, she said, "Maggie, dear, can you lend me an umbrella?
It is raining very hard, and I do not wish to go home without one; I will send it back to-morrow." "Certainly," answered Margaret.

"Umbrella and overshoes, too;" and rising, she left the room to procure them.
"But you surely are not going out in this storm," said Mr.Hamilton; while Carrie, who really liked Mrs.Carter, and felt that it would be more lonely when she was gone, exclaimed eagerly, "Oh, don't leave us to-night, Mrs.Carter.

Don't." "Yes, I think I must," was the answer, while Mr.Hamilton continued: "You had better stay; but if you insist upon going, I will order the carriage, as you must not walk." "Rather than put you to all that trouble, I will remain," said Mrs.
Carter; and when Mag returned with two umbrellas and two pairs of overshoes, she found the widow comfortably seated in her mother's armchair, while on the stool at her side sat Lenora looking not unlike a little imp, with her wild, black face, and short, thick curls.
Walter Hamilton had not had much opportunity for scanning the face of Mrs.Carter, but now, as she sat there with the firelight flickering over her features, he fancied that he could trace marks of the treacherous deceit of which Mag had warned him; and when the full black eyes rested upon Margaret he failed not to note the glance of scorn which flashed from them, and which changed to a look of affectionate regard the moment she saw she was observed.

"There is something wrong about her," thought he, "and the next time I am alone with Mag I'll ask what it is she fears from this woman." That night, in the solitude of their room, mother and child communed together as follows: "I do believe, mother, you are twin sister to the old one himself.

Why, who would have thought, when first you made that _friendly_ visit, that in five weeks time both of us would be snugly ensconced in the best chamber of the homestead ?" "If you think we are in the best chamber, you are greatly mistaken," replied Mrs.Carter.