" He rose after a silence and went out with downcast head.
She sat rigidly, feeling as if the blood were freezing in her hands and
feet. The crisis was upon her. The time of her judgment was coming--and
she was alone! She burned with anger against Rivers. Why had he waited
and waited? "_He_ can put things off--he is a man, but I am the woman--I
must suffer it all." The pain, the shame, the deadly danger--all were
hers.
Burke returned, noisily, stamping his feet like a boy.
"It's snowin' like all git out," he said, "and I've got to rig up some
kind of a sled. I reckon winter has come in earnest now, and our
coal-pile is low."
He went to sleep with the readiness of a child, and as she lay listening
to his quiet breath she remembered how easy it had once been for her to
sleep. She had the same agony of pity for him that she would have felt
for a child she had wronged malevolently.
The next day Mrs. Bussy came over. At her rap Blanche called, "Come in,"
but remained seated by the fire.
The old woman entered, knocking the snow off her feet like a man.
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