But for an instant she could not, she dared not, raise her eyes.

Clear on the frosty air came sounds that made her blood turn cold.

She felt as if her heart would suffocate her.

A brief blindness blotted out all things.
Then with an agonised effort she forced back her weakness, she forced herself to look.

Yes, the thing she had feared so horribly was being enacted like a ghastly nightmare above her.
There on the slope was her husband, a gigantic figure outlined against the snow.