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 . Joscelyn , rapt away from her surroundings , did not perceive her grandparents . Her face was turned from them and she was addressing an unseen auditor in passionate denunciation . She spoke , moved , posed , gesticulated , with an inborn genius shining through every motion and tone like an illuminating lamp . `` Josie , what are you doing ? ''
It was Cyrus who spoke , advancing XXXXX the room like a stern , hard impersonation of judgment .
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