. The shortest days were past, but in the
first week of February they had not lengthened sensibly, though to a
finer perception there was the promise of release from the winter dark,
if not from the winter cold. It was not far from six o'clock when
Northwick mounted the southward rise of the street; it was still almost
light enough to read; and the little slender black figure of a man that
started up in the middle of the road, as if it had risen out of the
ground, had an even vivid distinctness. He must have been lying in the
snow; the horses crouched back with a sudden recoil, as if he had struck
them back with his arm, and plunged the runners of the cutter into the
deeper snow beside the beaten track. He made a slight pause, long enough
to give Northwick a contemptuous glance, and then continued along the
road at a leisurely pace to the deep cut through the snow from the next
house. Here he stood regarding such difficulty as Northwick had in
quieting his horses, and getting underway again. He said nothing, and
Northwick did not speak; Elbridge growled, "He's on one of his tears
again," and the horses dashed forward with a shriek of all their bells.
Northwick did not open his lips till he entered the avenue of firs that
led from the highway to his house; they were still clogged with the
snowfall, and their lowermost branches were buried in the drifts.

"What's the matter with the colt?" he asked.

"I don't know as that fellow understands the colt's feet very well. I
guess one of the shoes is set wrong," said Elbridge.

"Better look after it."

Northwick left Elbridge the reins, and got out of the cutter at the
flight of granite steps which rose to the ground-floor of his wooden
palace. Broad levels of piazza stretched away from the entrance under a
portico of that carpentry which so often passes with us for
architecture. In spite of the effect of organic flimsiness in every
wooden structure but a log cabin, or a fisherman's cottage shingled to
the ground, the house suggested a perfect functional comfort. There were
double windows on all round the piazzas; a mellow glow from the
incandescent electrics penetrated to the outer dusk from them; when the
door was opened to Northwick, a pleasant heat gushed out, together with
the perfume of flowers, and the odors of dinner.

"Dinner is just served, sir," said the inside man, disposing of
Northwick's overcoat and hat on the hall table with respectful scruple.

Northwick