The old house was quiet within, and not a breath of wind was stirring without.

There was no sound except the crackling of the dry boughs on the fire and the hollow drip of the melting snow.
By the chair from which Mrs.Ray gazed vacantly and steadily Rotha sat with a book in her hand.

She tried to read, but the words lost their meaning.

Involuntarily her eyes wandered from the open page.

At length the old volume, with its leathern covers clasped together with their great brass clasp, dropped quietly into the girl's lap.
At that moment there was a sound of footsteps in the courtyard.
Getting up with an anxious face, Rotha walked to the window and drew the blind partly aside.
It was Matthew Branthwaite.
"How fend ye, lass ?" he said on opening the door; "rubbin' on all reet?
The roads are varra drewvy after the snow," he added, stamping the clods from his boots.