obliterated track and then
turn towards the shelter of Brent Farm.

"Is he coming?" Mildred asked. She was childishly interested in his
return.

"Yes. He has gone to put the horse up at the farm."

"He will be cold."

"Yes." Helen was cold, too.

"It is a dreadful day for driving."

"I don't think he minds that," she said in a dead voice.

"No. You had better go downstairs."

"When I see him starting back. He'll have to talk to Lily. No, he's
coming now."

She stood at the window while she slowly counted twenty, and then she
warmed her hands before she went.

She was irritated by the memory of him running across the road with his
hands in his pockets, his head butting against the storm, his eager feet
sinking into the snow and dragging themselves out again. She had a crazy
wish that he would fall. Why could he not walk? she asked herself. It
was absurd to be in such a hurry. There was plenty of time, more than
enough, if he but knew it! She laughed, and hated the false, cruel
sound, and looked round the hall to see if there were any one to hear;
but in the snow, as she opened the gate to him, there was a moment in
which she knew nothing but joy. He had come back, he was close to her,
and evil had passed away.

"Oh, my darling--" he said. "Let me get off my coat!"

He took her hands, and unsmilingly he scanned her, from her smooth hair
to her mouth, from her hands to her feet.

"What is it?" he asked.

She gave him her clear regard. "All the things that have mattered most
to me have been comings and goings through this gate and the garden
door."

"Well, dearest one--"

"You've come again."

"And I shall come tomorrow."

"Will you?" She closed her eyelids on what he might see, and he kissed
her between the eyes. "I have stayed away too long," he said.

"Yes. I want to talk to you. Come and see Notya first."

"Things have been happening, Daniel tells me."

"Oh, yes, they have."

"And if your letters had shown me your face, I shouldn't have stayed
away another day."

"Isn't it so nice, Zebedee?"

"It's lovelier than it ever was, but there's a line here, and here, and
here. And your eyes--"

Again she shut them, but she held up her face. "I want you to kiss my
mouth."

"Helen," he said, when he had slowly done her bidding, "let us sit on
the stairs and think about each other. Yes, there's room for Jim, but,
oh, my blessed one, he ought to have a bath. No, you can stay down
there, my boy