`` She is just lovely , I think , '' said Faith . `` Just as nice as Mrs. Blythe -- but different . I felt as if I wanted to hug her . She did hug ME -- such a nice , velvety hug . And she called me ` dearest . ' It THRILLED me . I could tell her ANYTHING . '' `` So you liked Miss West , Faith ? '' Mr. Meredith asked , with a rather odd intonation . `` I love her , '' cried Faith . `` Ah ! '' said Mr. Meredith . `` Ah ! '' CHAPTER XXI . THE IMPOSSIBLE WORD John Meredith walked meditatively through the clear crispness of a winter night in Rainbow Valley . The hills beyond glistened with the chill splendid lustre of moonlight on snow . Every little fir tree in the long valley sang its own wild song to the harp of wind and frost . His children and the Blythe lads and lasses were coasting down the eastern slope and whizzing over the glassy pond . They were having a glorious time and their gay voices and gayer laughter echoed up and down the valley , dying away in elfin cadences among the trees . On the right the lights of Ingleside gleamed through the maple grove with the genial lure and invitation which seems always to glow in the beacons of a home where we know there is love and good-cheer and a welcome for all kin , whether of flesh or spirit .
Mr. XXXXX liked very well on occasion to spend an evening arguing with the doctor by the drift wood fire , where the famous china dogs of Ingleside kept ceaseless watch and ward , as became deities of the hearth , but to-night he did not look that way .
Blythe Meredith Valley West XXI beacons cadences gayer good-cheer right