"It's a pity Hartley didn't come up with you." A sober hue came over the face of Irene.

This did not escape the notice of her father; but it was natural that she should feel sober in thinking of her husband as likely to be kept from her by the storm.

That such were her thoughts her words made evident, for she said, glancing toward the window-- "If there should be a deep snow, and the boats stop running, how can Hartley reach here in time ?" On the next morning the sun rose bright and warm for the season.
Several inches of snow had fallen, giving to the landscape a wintry whiteness, but the wind was coming in from the south, genial as spring.

Before night half the snowy covering was gone.
"We had our fears for nothing," said Mr.Delancy, on the second day, which was as mild as the preceding one.

"All things promise well.