One day the revelation came . Cyrus and Deborah had driven across the valley to visit their married daughter . Not finding her at home they returned . Mrs. Morgan went into the house while her husband went to the stable . Joscelyn was not in the kitchen , but the grandmother heard the sound of voices and laughter in the sitting room across the hall . `` What company has Josie got ? '' she wondered , as she opened the hall door and paused for a moment on the threshold to listen . As she listened her old face grew grey and pinched ; she turned noiselessly and left the house , and flew to her husband as one distracted . `` Cyrus , Josie is play-acting in the room ... laughing and reciting and going on . I heard her . Oh , I 've always feared it would break out in her and it has ! Come you and listen to her . '' The old couple crept through the kitchen and across the hall to the open parlour door as if they were stalking a thief . Joscelyn 's laugh rang out as they did so ... a mocking , triumphant peal . Cyrus and Deborah shivered as if they had heard sacrilege . Joscelyn had put on a trailing , clinging black skirt which her aunt had sent her a year ago and which she had never been permitted to wear . It transformed her into a woman . She had cast aside her waist of dark plum-coloured homespun and wrapped a silken shawl about herself until only her beautiful arms and shoulders were left bare . Her hair , glossy and brown , with burnished red lights where the rays of the dull autumn sun struck on it through the window , was heaped high on her head and held in place by a fillet of pearl beads . Her cheeks were crimson , her whole body from head to foot instinct and alive with a beauty that to Cyrus and Deborah , as they stood mute with horror in the open doorway , seemed akin to some devilish enchantment .
XXXXX , rapt away from her surroundings , did not perceive her grandparents .
Cyrus Deborah Joscelyn Josie Morgan day fillet homespun left parlour