The snow lay piled in drifts here all winter, and in spring it was an almost impassable slough of mud.

There was now no trodden path, only the track made by sleighs in the middle of the lane.

Into this strode Stephen, in his excitement walking so fast that Mercy could hardly keep up with him.

They were too much absorbed in their own sensations and in each other to realize the oddity of their appearance, floundering in the deep snow, looking eagerly in each other's faces, and talking in a breathless and disjointed way.
"Mercy," said Stephen, "I have been walking up and down waiting for you ever since I came out; but a man whom I could not get away from stopped me, and I had to stand still helpless and see you walk by the street, and I was afraid I could not overtake you." "Oh, was that it ?" said Mercy, looking up timidly in his face.

"I felt sure you would be there this morning, because"-- "Because what ?" said Stephen, gently.
"Because you said you would come sometimes, and I knew very well that that need not have meant this particular morning nor any particular morning; and that was what vexed me so, that I should have been silly and set my heart on it.