Those little gloved hands, tightly clinched, were the same which she had held to the library fire as we talked the day before; even the dress was the same.
Alas! she had been in too great a hurry to change it before she left, or her thin shoes.

Poor little Aurelia! And then--I don't know how it was, but in another moment Ralph was kneeling by her, bending over her, taking the stiffened hands in his trembling clasp, imploring the deaf ears to hear him, calling wildly to the pale lips to speak to him, which had done with human speech.

I could not bear it, and I turned away and looked out through the open door at the snow falling.

The inspector came and stood beside me.

In the silence which followed we could hear Charles speaking gently from time to time; and when at last we both turned towards them again, Ralph had flung himself down on an old bench at the farther end of the out-house, with his back turned towards us, his arms resting on a barrel, and his head bowed down upon them.