She could see old Boxer asleep on the front porch step and Lucy Ellen 's white cat stretched out on the parlor window-sill . There was no other sign of life about the place . Cecily drew a long , leisurely breath of satisfaction . `` After tea I 'll dig up those dahlia roots , '' she said aloud . `` They 'd ought to be up . My , how blue and soft that sea is ! I never saw such a lovely day . I 've been gone longer than I expected . I wonder if Lucy Ellen 's been lonesome ? '' When Cecily looked back from the misty ocean to the house , she was surprised to see a man coming with a jaunty step down the lane under the gnarled spruces . She looked at him perplexedly . He must be a stranger , for she was sure no man in Oriental walked like that . `` Some agent has been pestering Lucy Ellen , I suppose , '' she muttered vexedly . The stranger came on with an airy briskness utterly foreign to Orientalites . Cecily opened the gate and went through . They met under the amber-tinted sugar maple in the heart of the hollow . As he passed , the man lifted his hat and bowed with an ingratiating smile . He was about forty-five , well , although somewhat loudly dressed , and with an air of self-satisfied prosperity pervading his whole personality . He had a heavy gold watch chain and a large seal ring on the hand that lifted his hat . He was bald , with a high , Shaksperian forehead and a halo of sandy curls .
His face was ruddy and weak , but good-natured : his eyes were large and blue , and he had a little straw-colored moustache , XXXXX a juvenile twist and curl in it .
After at down for from if like that through with