excerpt from the book...DR. KENNEDY."If you please, marm, the man from York State is comin' afoot. Toostingy to ride, I'll warrant," and Janet, the housekeeper,disappeared from the parlor, just as the sound of the gate washeard, and an unusually fine-looking middle-aged man was seen comingup the box-lined walk which led to the cottage door.The person thus addressed was a lady, whose face, though young andhandsome, wore a look which told of early sorrow. Matilda Remingtonhad been a happy, loving wife, but the old churchyard in Vernoncontained a grass-grown grave, where rested the noble heart whichhad won her girlish love. And she was a widow now, a fair-haired,blue-eyed widow, and the stranger who had so excited Janet's wrathby walking from the depot, a distance of three miles, would claimher as his bride ere the morrow's sun was midway in the heavens. Howthe engagement happened she could not exactly tell, but happened ithad, and she was pledged to leave the vine-wreathed cottage whichHarry had built for her, and go with one of whom she knewcomparatively little.