m barren branch and spray; and the
roadside trees relapsed into stony quiet, so that the sound of horse's
hoofs breaking through the thin, dull, lustreless films of ice that
patched the furrowed road, might have been heard by the nearest
Continental picket a mile away.

Either a knowledge of this, or the difficulties of the road, evidently
irritated the viewless horseman. Long before he became visible, his
voice was heard in half-suppressed objurgation of the road, of his
beast, of the country folk, and the country generally. "Steady, you
jade!" "Jump, you devil, jump!" "Curse the road, and the beggarly
farmers that durst not mend it!" And then the moving bulk of horse and
rider suddenly arose above the hill, floundered and splashed, and then
as suddenly disappeared, and the rattling hoof-beats ceased.

The stranger had turned into a deserted lane still cushioned with
untrodden snow. A stone wall on one hand--in better keeping and
condition than the boundary monuments of the outlying fields--bespoke
protection and exclusiveness. Half-way up the lane the rider checked
his speed, and, dismounting, tied his horse to a wayside sapling. This
done, he went cautiously forward toward the end of the lane, and a
farm-house from whose gable window a light twinkled through the
deepening night. Suddenly he stopped, hesitated, and uttered an
impatient ejaculation. The light had disappeared. He turned sharply
on his heel, and retraced his steps until opposite a farm-shed that
stood a few paces from the wall. Hard by, a large elm cast the gaunt
shadow of its leafless limbs on the wall and surrounding snow. The
stranger stepped into this shadow, and at once seemed to become a part
of its trembling intricacies.

At the present moment it was certainly a bleak place for a tryst. There
was snow yet clinging to the trunk of the tree, and a film of ice on
its bark; the adjacent wall was slippery with frost, and fringed with
icicles. Yet in all there was a ludicrous suggestion of some sentiment
past and unseasonable: several dislodged stones of the wall were so
disposed as to form a bench and seats, and under the elm-tree's film of
ice could still be seen carved on its bark the effigy of a heart,
divers initials, and the legend, "Thine Forever."

The stranger, however, kept his eyes fixed only on the farm-shed and
the open field beside it. Five minutes passed in fruitless expectancy.
Ten minutes! And then the rising moon slow