"My soul! It's enough to wake the dead!" gasped Celestina, with hands on her ears.  "I should think it could be heard from here to Nantucket. What set you gettin' a bell that size, Willie?  'Twould scare any caller who dared to come this way out of a year's growth. I'll have to go an' see who's there, if he ain't been struck dumb on the doorsill. Who ever can it be—comin' to the front door?" 

 With perturbed expectancy she hurried through the passageway, Willie tagging at her heels. 

 The infrequently patronized portal of the Spence mansion, it proved, was so securely barred and bolted that to unfasten it necessitated no little time and patience; even after locks and fastenings had been withdrawn and the door was at liberty to move, not knowing what to do with its unaccustomed freedom it refused to stir, stubbornly resisting every attempt to wrench its hinges asunder. It was not until the man and woman inside had combined their efforts and struggled with it for quite an interval that it contrived to creak apart far enough to reveal through a four-inch crack the figure of a young man who was standing patiently outside. 

 One could not have asked for a franker, merrier face than that which peered at Celestina through the narrow chink of sunshine. To judge at random the visitor had come into his manhood recently, for the brown eyes were alight with youthful humor and the shoulders unbowed by the burdens of the world. He had a mass of wavy, dark hair; a thoughtful brow; ruddy color; a pleasant mouth and fine teeth; and a tall, erect figure which he bore with easy grace. 

 "Is Miss Morton at home?" he asked, smiling at Celestina through the shaft of golden light. 

 Celestina hesitated. So seldom was she addressed by this formal pseudonym that for the instant she was compelled to stop and consider whether the individual designated was on the premises or not. 

 "Y—e—s," she at last admitted feebly. 

 "I wonder if I might speak with her," the stranger asked. 

 "Why don't you tell him you're Miss Morton," coached Willie, in a loud whisper. 

 But the man on the steps had heard. 

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