Josephine had disappeared into the edge of the forest.

He held himself to a walk until he reached the cover of the spruce, but no sooner was he beyond Adare's vision than he began to run.

Three or four hundred yards in the forest he overtook Josephine.
He had come up silently in the soft snow, and she turned, a little startled, when he called her name.
"You, Philip!" she exclaimed, the colour deepening quickly in her cheeks.

"I thought you were with father in the big room." She had never looked lovelier to him.

From the top of her hooded head to the hem of her short skirt she was dressed in a soft and richly glowing red.