brother and his friends; he might--he HAD--let her go easily, as one
resigns his careless hold upon a paltry, unprized toy; but when her
hand had rested thus in his, and his passionate regards penetrated
her soul, he loved her, alone and entirely! She would fold this
conviction to her torpid heart for a little while before she turned
herself away finally from the memories of that love-summer and
battle-autumn of her existence. If it aroused in the chilled thing
some slight pangs of sentiency, it would do her no hurt to realize
through these that it had once been alive.

She saw a shadow approaching to join itself to hers upon the
whitened floor without, before Mr. Dorrance interrupted her reverie
by words.

"The fury of the tempest you admire proves its paternity," he said,
with a manifest effort at lightness. "It emanates from the vast
magazines of frost, snow, and wintry wind that lie far to the
north-east even of my home, and THAT is in a region you would think
drear and inhospitable after the more clement airs of of your native
State."

"We have very cold weather in Virginia sometimes," returned Mabel,
still scanning the sentinel gate-posts, and the pyramidal
arbor-vitae trees flanking them.

Her gaze was a mournful farewell, but she neglected none of the
amenities of hospitality. She was used to talking commonplaces.

"We feel it all the more, too, on account of the mildness of the
greater part of the winter," she subjoined.