s walking into it,
as she walked over this virginal carpet of snow.

She talked with a kind of desperation--of Thor's father and mother first
of all, of how good they were, each with a special variety of goodness.
It was wonderful what sorrow had done for Mrs. Masterman. "I never see
her now, Thor dear, without thinking of that look in Claude's face that
seemed to us like dawn. I see it in her. Don't you?" Without waiting for
an answer she hurried on. "And your father, Thor. He is good. No one but
a good man could have been so noble toward poor old Fay, when he
knows--when _every one_ knows--no matter what was proved or wasn't
proved in court--when he _knows_ the truth." She seemed to be answering
some unspoken argument on his side as she continued: "Oh yes, I remember
what mamma wrote about it--about the hoodoo or the voodoo--mamma's so
amusing!--but you and I have nothing to do with that, have we, Thor? We
can only take what we see, and judge by what is best. And so with this
wonderful new thing for papa and mamma--that they're to have some of
their money back--we _can't_ go behind it, can we? If he says it was a
mistake we must accept it as that, and never, never let any other
thought come into our minds. I know that papa and mamma, dear, innocent
things--they _are_ dear and innocent, you know, in spite of
everything!--I know they'll only be too glad to take it in the same
way."

Except for an occasional word he had hardly spoken by the time he had
reached the corner of Willoughby's Lane and County Street. Lois had a
renewal of the terror from which her own conversation had distracted
her. The crucial minute was at hand. The door was but a few yards away.
He would either go in with her--or he would go back. She hardly knew
which would be the more supportable--the joy or the dismay.

She caught at the first possibility of postponing both. "Oh, it's so
lovely! Let us walk on a little farther. It isn't half-past nine yet. I
looked at the clock as we were coming out. Papa and mamma ran off so
early. Don't you adore these windless winter nights?--when the air is as
if it had been distilled." She paused in the middle of the road and
looked around. "What's that star, Thor--over there--the one like a great
white diamond?" He told her it was Sirius, adding that its light took
eight years to travel to the earth, and going on to trace with his
finger the constellation of the Dog. The minute's return to the old
habits took so