Gathered In by Catherine Helen Spence — Read

When Kenneth Oswald, with his new-found friend, entered the drawing-- room with Mr. Gray and the ladies, he found a very different sort of evidence of wealth from what had struck his astonished sight in his aunt's glaring room. Everything was soft and harmonious in colouring; there was enough of furniture, but still enough of room to move about, or group together in conversation; and when the two elegant young women, dressed in perfect taste, took their seats at a little work table, under the softened light of a shaded lamp, the whole apartment seemed such a suitable framing for their grace and beauty, that he could fix on no particular point for admiration, the whole was so eminently satisfactory. The room was one that was lived in; there were books on each table, and traces of women's work to be seen. Mr. Gray's newspaper, and the magazine he had been cutting the leaves of lay close to his particular easy chair, and the open piano awaited Mrs. Ellerton's fingers, to go on again where she had left off to attend worship in the men's dining-room.

Mr. Ellerton and Walter Gray came out of the billiard-room when they heard the return of the party. They had been rather eager to ask about the service, but when they heard the voice and saw the face of David Henderson, they recognized the principal performer, and only ventured on the customary greetings of civility to him and to Kenneth.