h behind a big-boned grey who pawed the snow and

rapped in her shawl, and she was reading a book called "Kidney Troubles and

hen he entered, and after a mom

he page she replied: "I presume

his face. "Getting d

lot, and Dan'l Byrne says he darsn

up the stairs. The door of Mattie's room was shut, and he wavered a moment on the landing.

enlarged photograph of her mother, in an oxydized frame, with a bunch of dyed grasses at the back. Now these and all other tokens of her presence had vanished, and the room looked as bare and comfortless as when Zeena had shown her into it on the day of her arrival. In the middle o

, don't-

ace to his. "Ethan-I thought I wa

close, and with a trembling hand smo

again? What

ou told him we wasn't to wait

to cut it?" he fini

air, which was soft yet springy, like certain mosses on warm slop

ing out from below: "Dan'l Byrne says you bett

than's lips and died there. Mattie found her handkerchief and dried

e. "You let go, Ma

submitting to this argument he grasped the other handle, and

ck to her seat by the stove, did not lift her head from her book as he passed. Mattie followed him out of the door and helped him to lift the trunk

ng with every tick of the clock. Twice he opened his lips to speak to Mattie and found n

ive you over, Ma

think Zeena wants I

he repeated; and she went int

f her straight lips seemed to quiver away into a smile. She ate well, declaring that the mild weather made

he dishes. Zeena, after feeding the cat, had returned to her rocking-chair by the stove, and Jot

ck to say to Ethan: "What tim

pipe while he watched Mattie move to and fro. He answered:

n Mattie's averted cheek, and t

afternoon, Ethan," his wife said

t him, but he repeated curtly: "I'

tay and fix up that stove in Mattie's room afore the girl get

it was good enough for Mattie I gues

d to a house where they had a furnace," Zeen

er; and turning to Mattie he added in a hard voice: "You

he sorrel and backed him between the shafts of the sleigh that he once more became conscious of what he was doing. As he passed the bridle over the horse's head, and wound the traces around the shafts, he remembered the day when he had made the same preparations in order to drive over and meet hi

shawl lay ready by the door. He went to the foot of the stairs and listened. No sound reached him from above, but presently he thought he heard some

roach and turning quic

oing here, Matt

st taking a look round-that's all,"

en without speaking, and Etha

Zeena?"

She said she had those shooting pains a

say good-b

was all

he would be returning to it alone. Then the sense of unreality overcame him once more, and

his seat and bent over to tuck the rug about her as she slipped into the place at his side. "Now the

neath the fur and pressing it in his. His face tingled and he felt dizzy,

e right, up the Bettsbridge road. Mattie sat silent, giving no sign of su

answered: "I kn

spruce and larch. Ahead of them, a long way off, a range of hills stained by mottlings of black forest flowed away in round white curves against the sky. The lane passed into a pine-wood with boles reddening in the afternoon sun and delicate blue shadows on the snow. As they entered

e aromatic trunks, the snow breaking crisply under their feet, till they came to a small sheet of water with steep wooded sides. Across its frozen surface, from the farther bank, a singl

bly beach till his eye lit on a fall

sat at the picnic,

revellers and drawn into the group by the lake, where Mattie, encircled by facetious youths, and bright as a blackberry under her spreading hat, was brewing coffee over a gipsy fire. He remembered the shyness he had felt at approaching her in his uncouth clothes, and then the lighting up of her face, and the way she had broken through the group to come to him with a cup in her hand.

cket," he said, pushing his foot in

y with such sharp e

e-trunk in the sun and

as a picture in that

re. "Oh, I guess it was

that he was a free man, wooing the girl he meant to marry. He looked at her hair and longed to tou

feet and said: "We must

only half-roused from his dream. "T

ings he had to say to her before they parted, but he could not say them in that place of summer memories, and he turned and fol

r, with a reflection of cold red on the eastern hills. The clumps of trees in the snow seemed to draw together in ruffled

rkfield road Ethan said: "M

ut at length she said: "I'll

bad air and the standing all

than I was before I

to throw away all th

ithout speaking. With every yard of the way some spot where they had stood,

f your father's fo

t any of 'e

"You know there's nothing I w

there

I c

elt a slight tremor in t

"if I could ha' gone wit

ailing light he saw it was the letter to his wife that he had begun the night before and forgotten to destroy.

udden movement she tore the letter in shred

t! Tell me!"

he had to stoop his head to hear her: "I used to think of it somet

the sweetness of it.

d long been fixed for her: "The

gave me my coffee

the picnic with me; and then, when I saw you coming down the road, I th

to the hollow by Ethan's mill and as they descended the darkness descende

Matt. There isn't a thing

te to me some

nd touch you. I want to do for you and care for you. I wa

ink but what I'

, you mean? I supp

han!" s

ke me feel, Matt. I'd a'most r

as, I wish I wa

hook him out of his dark a

alk that way,"

s true? I've been wishing i

quiet! Don't

nybody been good

her, when I can't l

t's true ju

by in a joyous flutter of bells, and they straightened themselves and looked ahead with rigid faces. Along the main street lights had begun to shine fr

en reached them, and they saw a knot of boys, with sleds beh

coast for a day or two," Ethan

e added: "We were to hav

f and her through their miserable last hour, he went on discursively: "Ai

asn't often I got d

so," h

rch and the black curtain of the Varnum spruces the slope stretched away below them without a sled

augh. "Why, th

His one desire now was to postpone the mom

tered. "The girl'll be

t. You'd have to i

ad jumped from the sleigh she let him help her out, saying only, with

over the sorrel, who stood passively by the roadside, hanging a meditativ

so close that her hair brushed his face. "All right, Matt?" he

y: "It's dreadfully dark.

vertheless he sat still a moment, straining his eyes down the long hill, for it was the most confusing hour of the evening, the hour

" he

ollow night opening out below them and the air singing by like an organ. Mattie sat perfectly still, but as they reached

lew down the second slope; and when they reached the level ground beyond, and t

the hill. Ethan dragged the sled with one ha

you into the elm?" he a

never scared with

stfulness. "It is a tricky place, though. The least swerve, and we'd never ha

ways say you've got

each other without speaking; but at every step of their climb Eth

east of the church he stooped his head to her to ask: "Are you

Hale's. Anyhow I'll leave it where I found it." He drew the sled up to the Varnum gate and rested

thlessly, and flung her arms about him. Her lips, groping for his,

" she stammered, an

you go!" broke from h

and he heard her sobbing. "Oh,

ll we do? Wh

nds like children, and her bo

they heard the churc

it's time!

e for what? You don't suppose

my train wh

ou going if

er hands lying cold

f us going anywheres without

hands from his, threw her arms about his neck, and pressed a sudden drench

n wh

she panted. "So 't we'll

on earth d

Right into the big elm. You said you could. So '

you talking of?

but I will be

, Matt-"

hold about his neck. Her

ust now. Nobody but you was ever good to me. And there'll be that strange girl in the house... an

ve to go up every night, of the woman who would wait for him there. And the sweetness of Mattie's avowal, the wild wonder of knowing at last t

feeling of it into his hand, so that it would sleep there like a seed in winter. Once he found her mouth again, and they seemed to be by the pond together in the burning

n in their coffins underground. He said to himself: "Perhaps it'll fee

across the road, and thought: "He's wo

whispered, tugg

into the transparent dusk of the open. The slope below them was deserted. All Starkfield was at supper, and not a figure crossed the open space before the church. The sky, s

the snow and his lips were in her hair. He stretched out his legs, drove his heels into the road to keep t

" he ord

but she cowered down in her seat,

t u

hy

to sit i

can you ste

to. We'll foll

whispers, as though th

but she kept on repeating: "Wh

el you holding me," he stammere

lly between its edges. She waited while he seated himself with crossed legs in the front of the sled; then she crouched quickly down at his back and clasped her arms about him. Her breath in his nec

a sudden drop, then a rise, and after that another long delirious descent. As they took wing for this it seemed to him that they were flying indeed, flying far up into the cloudy night, with Starkfield immeas

es she had spoken ran through his head and danced before him on the air. The big tree loomed bigger and closer, and as they bore down on it he thought: "It's waiting for us: it seems to know." But suddenly his wife's face, with twisted monstrous lineaments, thrust itself between him an

if it were hurt. Then he understood that it must be in pain: pain so excruciating that he seemed, mysteriously, to feel it shooting through his own body. He tried in vain to roll over in the direction of the sound, and stretched his left arm out across the snow. And now it was as though he felt rather than heard the twittering; it seemed to be under his palm, which rested on something soft and springy. Th

ving with him as he moved, and his hand went over and over he

s ear to her mouth, and in the darkness he

d far off, up the hill, he heard the sorrel whinny,

's kitchen, and of the two women sitting ther

preparing the meal which Frome's absence had delayed. A slatternly calico wrapper hung from her shoulders and the wisps of her thin grey hair were drawn away from a high forehead

esponding movement of her body. Her hair was as grey as her companion's, her face as bloodless and shrivelled, but amber-tinted, with swarthy shadows sharpening the nose and h

c of luxury bought at a country auction, the furniture was of the roughest kind. Three coarse china plates and a broken-nosed milk-jug had been set on a g

most out," Frome said, glancing about h

iche, answered complainingly, in a high thin voice. "It's on'y just been made up this very minute. Zeena fell asle

s she who had been spe

of a cold mince-pie in a battered pie-dish, set down her unappetisin

nd said: "This is my wife, Mis' Frome." After another interval he added, tu

drift; and so lively was her satisfaction on seeing me safely restored to her the nex

orse had carried me to and from Corbury Junction through the worst blizzard of the winter;

ay of breaking down their reserve was to let them try to penetrate mine. I therefore confined myself to saying, in a matter-of-fact tone, that I had been received with

ith Ethan. I don't believe but what you're the only stranger has set foot in that house for over twenty years. He's that pr

there, Mrs. Ha

troubles... But I generally make out to drive over there round about New Year's, and once in the summer. Only I always try to pick a day when Ethan's off somewheres. It's bad enough to

rse-hair parlour. Mrs. Hale glanced at me tentatively, as though trying to see how much footing my conjectures gave her; and I guessed that if

ength before I said: "Yes, it's pretty bad

reat friends, and she was to have been my bridesmaid in the spring... When she came to I went up to her and stayed all night. They gave her things to quiet her, and she didn't know much till to'rd m

here could never rightly tell what she and Ethan were doing that night coasting, when they'd ought to have been on their way to the Flats to ketch the train... I never knew myself what Zeena thought-I don't to this day. Nobody knows Zeena's tho

she's been

lse for her to go;" and my heart tightened at t

he was-but she seemed to be raised right up just when the call came to her. Not as she's ever given up doctoring, and she's had sick spells right along; bu

nt, plunged in the vision of what her words ev

attie wonderful-I've seen that myself. But sometimes the two of them get going at each other, and then Ethan's face'd break your heart... When I see that, I think it's him that suffers most... anyhow it ain't Zeena, because she ain't got the time... It's a pity, though," Mrs. Hale ende

e eased of its long burden, and she had no more to say

l, I say it's a pity she did. I said it right out to our minister once, and he was shocked at me. Only he wasn't with me that morning when she first came to... And I say, if she'd ha' died, Ethan might ha' lived; and t