CHAPTER LII

THE STORM

The blizzard that raged in the Storm Country, the day before Christmas,
was general through the East. Frederick Graves, on his way home for the
Yuletide festivities, had been hampered and delayed by the storm.
Indeed, the Lehigh train almost lost its way among the drifts, and
instead of arriving about supper time, it came limping in late in the
evening. When the much married man stepped off the train at the Ithaca
depot, he moved slowly down the long platform toward the carriage stand.
Waldstricker's coachman met him near the end of the station and relieved
him of his suit case. One glance at the newcomer's emaciated face,
bearing the tell-tale spots of hectic red, told the man why Graves had
been in the mountains.

"Mr. Waldstricker sent me down to meet you, sir," the servant told
Frederick. "Your wife is up to our house and I'm to take you there. It's
a bad night, but I'll get you through all right."

Frederick hesitated a moment before getting into the covered sleigh. He
hadn't calculated to go to Waldstricker's. But the servant's next words
decided him.

"You see, sir, Miss Elsie's lost. She went out this afternoon and hasn't
been seen since; at least, hadn't been found when I left there about
seven o'clock. Mr. Waldstricker's tearing around through the snow like a
wild man and every one at Hayt's is out hunting for her."

Warmly wrapped, Frederick leaned back in the sleigh. While the horses
plodded slowly against the storm up the long hill, he renewed his
meditations and reviewed the course of action he'd determined to follow.
His unsatisfied passion for Tess had grown more insistent during the
months spent alone in the mountains. He'd written her many letters
which had not been answered or returned to him. Indeed, he hadn't heard
of or from her, directly or indirectly, for many weeks. Her failure to
reply to his letters, as well as her hostile attitude, the last time
he'd seen her, he ascribed to Young's influence. That Tessibel had
become actually indifferent to him, he couldn't comprehend at all.
Surely, the love she'd shown him couldn't die! The separation had only
made his passion the greater. It might be that, through his neglect, her
love had grown dormant, but nothing could destroy it. Freed from the
lawyer's control, and in new surroundings, the well remembered sweetness
of their short honeymoon would become a present experience.

He'd been able to secrete, when he'd been