The girl replied with gentle brevity-- 'We know that the roads are snowed up.

The next house is three miles farther on.' He hesitated, but his necessity was obvious.
'I am afraid I must beg for a night's shelter.' He had been wondering a good deal what she would say, how she would accede, and then he perceived that her dignity knew no circumlocution.
'I will send the man for your horse.' She said it with hardly a moment's pause.
The woman gave him a small broom, an implement to the use of which he had grown accustomed, and disappeared upon the errand.

The girl stood still in her statuesque pose of light-bearer.

The young man busied himself in brushing the snow from cap and coat and boots.

As he brushed himself he felt elation in the knowledge, not ordinarily uppermost, that he was a good-looking fellow and a gentleman..