The days were still worse, for as November went slowly away the circumstances which surrounded their lives appeared to constantly gather a more decided and a bitterer tone.

December, that had always been such a month of happiness, bright with Christmas expectations and Christmas joys, came in with a terribly severe, wet norther.

The great log fires only warmed the atmosphere immediately surrounding them, and Isabel and Antonia sat gloomily within it all day.
It seemed to Antonia as if her heart had come to the very end of hope; and that something must happen.
The rain lashed the earth; the wind roared around the house, and filled it with unusual noises.

The cold was a torture that few found themselves able to endure.

But it brought a compensation.