Strange currents of air crossed the empty room like the passage of unseen spirits, and she even fancied she heard whispers at the window.

This caused her to rise and open it, when she found that the sleet had given way to a dry feathery snow that was swarming through the slits of the shutter; a faint reflection from the already whitened fences glimmered in the panes.

She shut the window hastily, with a little shiver of cold.

Where was Demorest in this storm?
Would it stop him?
She thought with pride now of the dominant energy that had frightened her, and knew it would not.

But her husband ?--what kept him?
It was twelve o'clock; he had seldom stayed out so late before.