The policemen went away, and Mr.and Mrs.Birtwell sat down by an open grate in which the fire still burned.
"Don't let it distress you so, Margaret," said the former, trying to comfort his wife.

"There's nothing to fear for Archie.

Nobody ever heard of a man getting lost in a city snow-storm.

If he'd been out on a prairie, the case would have been different, but in the streets of the city! The thing's preposterous, Margaret." "Oh, if he'd only gone away as he came, I wouldn't feel so awfully about it," returned Mrs.Birtwell.

"That's what cuts me to the heart.
To think that he came to my house sober and went away--" She caught back from her tongue the word she would have spoken, and shivered.
"Nothing of the kind, Margaret, nothing of the kind," said her husband, quickly.