they were nearing
home, and swung into faster pace, while the men drew fur caps down, and
the robes closer round them as the draught their passage made stung
them with a cold that seemed to sear the skin where there was an inch
left uncovered. Now and then a clump of willows or a birch bluff
flitted out of the dimness, grew a trifle blacker, and was left behind,
but there was still no sign of habitation, and Alfreton, too chilled at
last to speak, passed the reins to Winston, and beat his mittened
hands. Winston could scarcely grasp them, for he had lived of late in
the cities, and the cold he had been sheltered from was numbing.

For another hour they slid onwards, and then a dim blur crept out of
the white waste. It rose higher, cutting more blackly against the sky,
and Winston recognized with a curious little quiver the birch bluff
that sheltered Silverdale Grange. Then as they swept through the gloom
of it, a row of ruddy lights blinked across the snow, and Winston felt
his heart beat as he watched the homestead grow into form. He had
first come there an impostor, and had left it an outcast, while now it
was amid the acclamations of those who had once looked on him with
suspicion he was coming back again.

Still, he was almost too cold for any definite feeling but the sting of
the frost, and it was very stiffly he stood up, shaken by vague
emotions, when at last the horses stopped. A great door swung open,
somebody grasped his hand, there was a murmur of voices, and partly
dazed by the change of temperature he blundered into the warmth of the
hall. The blaze of light bewildered him, and he was but dimly sensible
that the men who greeted him were helping him to shake off his furs,
while the next thing he was sure of was that a little white-haired lady
was holding out her hand.

"We are very glad to see you back," she said, with a simplicity that
yet suggested stateliness. "Your friends insisted on coming over to
welcome you, and Dane will not let you keep them waiting too long.
Dinner is almost ready."

Winston could not remember what he answered, but Miss Barrington smiled
at him as she moved away, for the flush in his face was very eloquent.
The man was very grateful for that greeting, and what it implied. It
was a few minutes later when he found himself alone with Dane, who
laughed softly as he nodded to him.

"You are convinced at last?" he said. "Still, there is a little more
of the same thing to