Ethan Frome

ffled groups, in which a moving lantern ray now and then lit up a face flushed with food and dancing. The villagers, being afoot, were th

From where he stood he could not see the persons coming out of the hall till they had advanced a few steps beyond the

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. It had been one of the wonders of their intercourse that from the first, she, the quicker, finer,

hall, and she stood looking uncertainly about her as if wondering why he did not show himself. Then a man's figu

to tell the other girls. I ain't as low-down as that." (How Frome hated his cheap banter!

incredulous: "What on earth's your

kinder knew I'd want to take a ride to-night," Eady, in his tr

rresolutely about her fingers. Not for the world would he have made a si

tch the colt," Denis called to

her head from side to side, as though peering through the night for another figure. She let Denis Eady lead out the horse, climb into the cutter and fling ba

a lovely ride!" she called b

e a cut that brought him quickly

ery as thunder on this turn," he cried,

him: "Good-night!

y, after a moment, jump from the cutter and go toward the girl with the reins over one arm. The other he tried to slip through hers; but she eluded him nimbly, and Frome's heart, which had swung o

spruces he caught up with her a

you, Matt?" he aske

"I thought maybe you cou

at on earth c

sn't feeling any

ed, a question struggling in him. "T

t afraid!"

an empty world glimmering about them wide and g

come, why didn't you ri

u? How did you know

he sense of having done something arch and ingenious. To prolong the effect he gr

see the shape of her head beside his shoulder. He longed to stoop his cheek and rub it against her scarf. He would have liked to stand there with her all night in the blackness. She mo

of them coasting before

in and coast with them

, Ethan? It wo

o-morrow if t

near running into the big elm at the bottom. We were all sure they were killed."

. I guess I can take you down a

unsteadied him, and the inflection with which she had said of the engaged couple "T

though. It ought to be

e afraid of

he tossed back, almost indifferently; and su

tic importance to every change in her look and tone. Now he thought she understood him, and feared; now he was sure she did not, and despaired. To-night the pressure of accumulated misgivings sent the scale drooping toward despair, and her indifference was the more ch

t last reel with Denis," he brought out awkwardly. He could not pr

w could I tell

is true," he jerked out at

darkness, that her face was lifted qu

ld be leaving us" he flounder

, with a sudden drop of her sweet treble: "You mean t

they stood motionless, each seeki

kward to me still-and I haven't got much strength in my arms. But if she'd only tell me I'd try. You know she hardly ever says anything, and sometimes I can see she ain't

eavens seemed to melt and rain down sweetness. Again he struggled for the all

ore them grey and lonely under the stars. Sometimes their way led them under the shade of an overhanging bank or through the thin obscurity of a clump of leafless trees. Here and there a farmhouse stood far back among the fields, mute and cold as a grave-st

Ethan's gate, and as they drew near it the sens

't want to le

o catch her stifled whispe

joy. He forgot what else he had meant to say and pressed her aga

crying are

se I'm not,"

quiet company had mocked his restlessness, his desire for change and freedom. "We never got away-how should you?" seemed to be written on every headstone; and whenever he went in or out of his gate he th

rs once, must conspire with him to keep her; and brushing by the graves, he thought

the slope Mattie stumbled against some unseen obstruction and clutched his sleeve to steady herself. The wave of warmth that went through him was like the p

from the porch like the crape streamer tied to the door for a death, and the thought flashed through Ethan's brain: "If it was there for Zeen

ey came back late from the village, to leave the key of the kitchen door under the mat. Ethan stood before the

ithout speaking, and he stoop

said, straightening

ther through the icy darkness. Suc

n a tremulous whisper; but both of them k

" Mattie continued, after a pause during

in the same tone. Another wild thought tore thro

then he felt in his pocket for a match, and kneeling down, passed

ay beneath it. Who could be stirring in that silent house? He heard a step on the stairs, and agai

ut of the darkness her puckered throat and the projecting wrist of the hand that clutched the quilt, and deepened fantastically the hollows and prominences of her high-boned face under its ring of crimping

than passed into the kitchen, which had the deadl

Zeena," Ethan joked, stamp

lt so mean I c

of the cherry scarf in her fresh lips and cheeks. "

from her. "You might 'a' shook off that

nd pausing in the hall raised the lamp at arm

. The doors of the two bedrooms faced each other across the narrow upper landing, an

awhile," he said, turning as

at him. "For the land's sake-

mill account

the unshaded lamp bringing out with micros

You'll ketch your death.

attie's and he fancied that a fugitive warning gleamed through her lashes. The next m

ted; and with lowered head he went up in his wife's wak