As he moved about in the low, firelit room, and she watched him, her whole nature melted; and he knew it.
Presently she took the child upstairs.

He waited for her, hanging over the fire--listening to the storm outside--and thinking, thinking-- When she reappeared, and he, looking round, saw her standing in the doorway, so tall and slender, her pale face and hair coloured by the glow of the fire, passion and youth spoke in him once more.
He sprang up and caught her in his arms.

Presently, sitting in the old armchair beside the blaze, he had gathered her on his knee, and she had clasped her hands round his neck, and buried her face against him.
All things were forgotten, save that they were man and wife together, within this 'wind-warm space'-- ringed by night, and pattering sleet, and gusts that rushed in vain upon the roof that sheltered them.
But next morning, within the little cottage--beating rain on the windows, and a cheerless storm-light in the tiny rooms--the hard facts of the situation resumed their sway.

In the first place money questions had to be faced.

Fenwick made the most of his expectations; but at best they were no more, and how to live till they became certainties was the problem.