darkened the doorway.
'Getting on with the breakfast? That's fine!' he called.
'It's quite ready: wherever have you been? I wouldn't have imagined that anyone could find a thing to do outside on a day like this.'
'Oh, there's always something to do. But I just ran up to the Sharps' for a minute. I knew old mother Sharp wouldn't keep her promise about coming down to-day. She's all right, but she does hate to walk.'
'Well, I'm sure I wouldn't blame anyone for choosing to stay indoors a day like this. But what did you want to see her in such a hurry for?'
'Oh, nothin' particular; I sort of thought maybe you wouldn't mind having a little milk with your tea on a gloomy morning like this,' he said shamefacedly.
'That was awfully good of you; thank you very much,' she said with real gratitude, as she thought of him tramping those two miles in the blinding storm.
'Do you think we are in for a blizzard?' she asked when they were at the table. To her unspeakable relief, she found that the one cup was intended for her; he had waved her toward the one chair, apparently the place of honor, contenting himself with one of the stools.
'N-o-o,' he said, 'I don't think so. It's beginning to lighten up a little already. And besides, don't you remember that I foretold a mildish winter?'
'I was forgetting that I had married a prophet,' she smiled.
But all through the day the snow continued to fall steadily, although the wind had died away and, at intervals, the sun shone palely. At nightfall, it was still snowing.
The day passed quickly, as Nora found plenty to occupy herself with. By supper time she felt healthfully tired, with the added comfortable feeling that, for a novice, she had really accomplished a good deal.
The whole room certainly looked cleaner and the pots and pans, although not shining, were as near to it as hot water and scrubbing could make them. Fortunately, she had a quantity of fresh white paper in her trunk which greatly improved the appearance of the shelves.
During the day Frank left the house for longer or shorter intervals on various pretexts which she felt must be largely imaginary, trumped up for the occasion. She was agreeably surprised to find that he was sufficiently tactful to divine that she wanted to be alone.
While he was in the house he smoked his pipe incessantly and read some magazines which she had unpacked with some of her books. But she never glanced suddenly in his direction without finding that he was watching her.
'I tell
'That doesn't look like a very strong indorsement,' Nora admitted.
The next day Nora woke to a world of such dazzling whiteness that she was blinded every time she attempted to look out on it.
'You want to be careful,' her husband cautioned her; 'getting snow-blinded isn't as much fun as you'd think. Even I get bad sometimes; and I'm used to it. Looks like one of them Christmas cards, don't it? Somebody sent Gertie one once and she showed it to us.'
That afternoon, Mr. Sharp drove his wife down for the promised visit. As in his judgment the two women would want to be alone, he proposed to Frank to drive back home with him to give him the benefit of his opinion on some improvements he was contemplating.
'You're only wasting your time,' Mrs. Sharp had remarked grimly. 'There ain't going to be anything done to any of them barns before I get a lean-to on the house. You'd think even a man would know that a house that's all right for two gets a little small for seven,' she added, scornfully, to Nora.
