ggerated bow.

"Don't mention it," he said. "Didn't know you had company. Wouldn't
think o' comin' in."

He turned away, his shoulders shaking with ostentatious mirth. It was
all in a minute, and Raven's following act, quite unreasoned, also
occupied a minute. He put Tira aside, stepped out after Martin and
walked behind him down the path. When Martin reached the sleigh, Raven
was at his side. Martin had ceased shaking his shoulders in that
fictitious mirth. Now in that last moment, it seemed, he took cognizance
of Raven, and turned, apprehension, in spite of him, leaping to his
face. Raven, still with no set purpose, grasped him by the collar with
one hand and with the other reached for the whip in the sleigh. It was
over quickly. Raven remembered afterward that the horse, startled by the
swish of the blows, jumped aside and that he called out to him. He did
not propose depriving Martin of the means of exit. The fellow did not
meet judgment lying down. He did a wild feat of struggling, but he was
soft in every muscle, a mean antagonist. The act over, Raven released
him, with an impetus that sent him staggering, set the whip in the
socket and turned back to the house. At that moment he saw Tenney coming
along the road, not with his usual hurried stride, but slowly, his head
lifted, his eyes upon the figures at his gate. Raven recoiled from the
possibility of a three-cornered wrangle when Tenney also should reach
the scene. It was an impossible predicament. Not for himself: he was
never troubled by any hampering sense of personal dignity, but for Tira,
who stood in silence watching them. She had advanced a few steps into
the snowy path and waited, immovable, the light breeze lifting her rings
of hair. To Raven, in the one glance he gave her, she was like a Fate,
choosing neither good nor ill, but watching the even course of time. If
Martin saw Tenney, he was not going to linger for any problematic issue.
He stepped into the sleigh and, without drawing the fur robe over his
knees, took up the reins. His face, turned upon Raven, was distorted
with rage.

"That's assault," he called to him, "assault an' battery. I'll have the
law on you an' she's my witness."

"Stop!" called Tira. She came down the path with long strides, her
garments blowing back. At three paces from the sleigh she halted and
called to him in a voice so clear and unrestrained that Raven thought
Tenney, coming on with his jerky action, might also have h