"I have half a mind to go out myself; anything is better than sitting here." But he sat down just the same.

Mr.Harper was no longer a young man.
"The storm's bating," observed the one.
"But not the cold.

Throw on a stick; I'm freezing." The other man obeyed; then looking up, stared.

A girl stood before them in the doorway.

Anitra, with cheeks ablaze and eyes burning, her traveling dress flapping damp about her heels, and on her head the red shawl she preferred to any hat.