May-flowers and apple-blossoms and peaches. Instead of the grey that often dulls this complexion, her eyes were of a blue at once intense and tender, and they seemed to burn on what they looked at with a soft, lambent flame. It was well understood by her sister and mother that her eyes always expressed a great deal more than Irene ever thought or felt; but this is not saying that she was not a very sensible girl and very honest. 

 The young man faltered perceptibly, and Irene came a little forward, and then there gushed from them both a smiling exchange of greeting, of which the sum was that he supposed she was out of town, and that she had not known that he had got back. A pause ensued, and flushing again in her uncertainty as to whether she ought or ought not to do it, she said, "My father, Mr. Corey; and my sister." 

 The young man took off his hat again, showing his shapely head, with a line of wholesome sunburn ceasing where the recently and closely clipped hair began. He was dressed in a fine summer check, with a blue white-dotted neckerchief, and he had a white hat, in which he looked very well when he put it back on his head. His whole dress seemed very fresh and new, and in fact he had cast aside his Texan habiliments only the day before. 

 "How do you do, sir?" said the Colonel, stepping to the window, and reaching out of it the hand which the young man advanced to take. "Won't you come in? We're at home here. House I'm building." 

 "Oh, indeed?" returned the young man; and he came promptly up the steps, and through its ribs into the reception-room. 

 "Have a trestle?" asked the Colonel, while the girls exchanged little shocks of terror and amusement at the eyes. 

 "Thank you," said the young man simply, and sat down. 

 "Mrs. Lapham is upstairs interviewing the carpenter, but she'll be down in a minute." 

 "I hope she's quite well," said Corey.  "I supposed--I was afraid she might be out of town." 

 "Well, we are off to Nantasket next week. The house kept us in town pretty late." 

 "It must be very exciting, building a house," said Corey to the elder sister. 

 "Yes, it is," she assented, loyally refusing in Irene's interest the opportunity of saying anything more. 

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