espect which character alone inspires,
and which character written in a man's appearance has often power to
inspire without a word or action to interpret it further. It was because
of this that curiosity to know where he was going and what for, and a
real solicitude as to what would happen to him, were strong enough to
lead the young man on.

They who have not walked upon snow by starlight do not know, perhaps,
that the chief difficulty of such progress is that there is no shadow;
perhaps they do not even know that at all times the difference between
an upward and a downward slope is revealed to the eye by light and
shade. The snow on which the two men were now walking had been left by
the wind with slight undulations of surface, such as are produced in a
glassy sea by the swing of a gentle under-swell; and Trenholme, not
sensitive as the stranger seemed to be in the points of his snow-shoes,
found himself stepping up when he thought himself stepping down, and the
reverse. At last he stumbled and fell.

It is not a matter of ease to rise from a bed which yields endlessly to
every pressure of arm or knee. Even a sea-bird, that strongest of
flyers, finds it hard to rise from any but its own element; and before
Trenholme had managed to spring up, as it were, from nothing, the man in
front had in some way become aware of his presence for the first time,
and of his fall; he turned and lifted him up with a strong hand. When
Trenholme was walking again the other retained a firm hold of his arm,
looked at him earnestly, and spoke to him. His words expressed a
religious idea which was evidently occupying his whole mind.

"The Lord is coming presently to set up His kingdom," he said. "Are you
ready to meet Him?"

On Alec Trenholme the effect of these words, more unexpected than any
other words could have been, was first and chiefly to convince him that
he was dealing with a witless person. Leaving him again, the speaker had
hurried on in front, making his way still toward the wood. When
Trenholme came up with him the wanderer had evidently found the place
where he had been before, for there was the irregular circular track of
his former wandering upon the snow. Trenholme counted himself a fool to
have been able before to suppose that there was no track because he had
not seen it. But he had hardly time for even this momentary glance at so
small a matter, for the old man was standing with face uplifted to the
stars, and he was