In the evening the rain ceased , the wind came around to the northwest , freezing suddenly , and a chilly yellow sunset beyond the dark hills seemed to herald a brighter morrow . Felicity and the Story Girl and I walked down to the post-office for the mail , along a road where fallen leaves went eddying fitfully up and down before us in weird , uncanny dances of their own . The evening was full of eerie sounds -- the creaking of fir boughs , the whistle of the wind in the tree-tops , the vibrations of strips of dried bark on the rail fences . But we carried summer and sunshine in our hearts , and the bleak unloveliness of the outer world only intensified our inner radiance . Felicity wore her new velvet hood , with a coquettish little collar of white fur about her neck . Her golden curls framed her lovely face , and the wind stung the pink of her cheeks to crimson . On my left hand walked the Story Girl , her red cap on her jaunty brown head . She scattered her words along the path like the pearls and diamonds of the old fairy tale . I remember that I strutted along quite insufferably , for we met several of the Carlisle boys and I felt that I was an exceptionally lucky fellow to have such beauty on one side and such charm on the other . There was one of father 's thin letters for Felix , a fat , foreign letter for the Story Girl , addressed in her father 's minute handwriting , a drop letter for Cecily from some school friend , with `` In Haste '' written across the corner , and a letter for Aunt Janet , postmarked Montreal . `` I ca n't think who that is from , '' said Felicity . `` Nobody in Montreal ever writes to mother . Cecily 's letter is from Em Frewen . She always puts ` In Haste ' on her letters , no matter what is in them . '' When we reached home , Aunt Janet opened and read her Montreal letter . Then she laid it down and looked about her in astonishment . `` Well , did ever any mortal ! '' she said . `` What in the world is the matter ? '' said Uncle Alec .
`` This letter is XXXXX James Ward 's wife in Montreal , '' said Aunt Janet solemnly .
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