1 He stood there a moment, breathing quickly, and looking up and down the street, in which not another figure moved.
2 Seen thus, from the pure and frosty darkness in which he stood, it seemed to be seething in a mist of heat.
3 Down the side wall facing the window stood a row of kitchen chairs from which the older women had just risen.
4 As he stood in the darkness outside the church these memories came back with the poignancy of vanished things.
5 "I wouldn't ever have it said that I stood in the way of a poor girl like Mattie marrying a smart fellow like Denis Eady," Zeena answered in a tone of plaintive self-effacement.
6 But now, as he stood outside the church, and saw Mattie spinning down the floor with Denis Eady, a throng of disregarded hints and menaces wove their cloud about his brain.
7 In another moment she would step forth into the night, and his eyes, accustomed to the obscurity, would discern her as clearly as though she stood in daylight.
8 A wave of shyness pulled him back into the dark angle of the wall, and he stood there in silence instead of making his presence known to her.
9 She was almost the last to leave the hall, and she stood looking uncertainly about her as if wondering why he did not show himself.
10 She stood perfectly still, looking after him, in an attitude of tranquil expectancy torturing to the hidden watcher.
11 They stood together in the gloom of the spruces, an empty world glimmering about them wide and grey under the stars.
12 Their arms had slipped apart and they stood motionless, each seeking to distinguish the other's face.
13 Here and there a farmhouse stood far back among the fields, mute and cold as a grave-stone.
14 Ethan stood before the door, his head heavy with dreams, his arm still about Mattie.
15 "It might have fallen off into the snow," Mattie continued, after a pause during which they had stood intently listening.