As he turned toward the group, he was beaming.

"If it were not," exclaimed the colonel, addressing the young men with a quizzical smile, "that there is a lady present--a very important lady in point of fact,--I might be tempted to say, 'I will certainly be damned!'" And with that the colonel lifted Mrs.Culpepper off her feet and kissed her, then lumbered down the steps and strode away.

He paused at the gate to gaze at the valley and turned to look back at the great unfinished house, then swung into the street and soon his hat disappeared under the hill.
As he went Mrs.Culpepper said, "Let them say what they will about Mart Culpepper, I always tell the girls if they get as good a man as their pa, they will be doing mighty well." Then the girls appeared bulging in hoops, and ruffles, with elbow sleeves, with a hint of their shoulders showing and with pink ribbons in their hair.

Clearly it was a state occasion.

The mother beamed at them a moment, and walked around Molly, saying, "I told you that was all right," and tied Ellen's hair ribbon over, while the young people were chattering, and before the boys knew it, she had faded into the dusk of the hall, and the clattering of dishes came to them from the rear of the house.