ld woman who came to sweep had visited
them since Mr. Van Torp had gone into the country in March, after Lady
Maud had been to see him on the evening of his arrival.

As then, the fire was laid in the grate, but the man in black who sat
in the shabby arm-chair had not put a match to the shavings, and the
bright copper kettle on the movable hob shone coldly in the raw glare
from the incandescent gaslight. The room was chilly, and the man had
not taken off his black overcoat or his hat, which had a broad band
on it. His black gloves lay on the table beside him. He wore patent
leather boots with black cloth tops, and he turned in his toes as he
sat. His aquiline features were naturally of the melancholic type, and
as he stared at the fireplace his expression was profoundly sad. He
did not move for a long time, but suddenly he trembled, as a man does
who feels the warning chill in a malarious country when the sun goes
down, and two large bright tears ran down his lean dark cheeks and
were quickly lost in his grizzled beard. Either he did not feel them,
or he would not take the trouble to dry them, for he sat quite still
and kept his eyes on the grate.

Outside it was quite dark and the air was thick, so that the
chimney-pots on the opposite roof were hardly visible against the
gloomy sky. It was the time of year when spring seems very near in
broad daylight, but as far away as in January when the sun goes down.

Mr. Isidore Bamberger was waiting for a visitor, as his partner Mr.
Van Torp had waited in the same place a month earlier, but he made no
preparations for a cheerful meeting, and the cheap japanned tea-caddy,
with the brown teapot and the chipped cups and saucers, stood
undisturbed in the old-fashioned cupboard in the corner, while the
lonely man sat before the cold fireplace and let the tears trickle
down his cheeks as they would.

At the double stroke of the spring door-bell, twice repeated, his
expression changed as if he had been waked from a dream. He dried his
cheeks roughly with the back of his hand, and his very heavy black
eyebrows were drawn down and together, as if the tension of the man's
whole nature had been relaxed and was now suddenly restored. The look
of sadness hardened to an expression that was melancholy still, but
grim and unforgiving, and the grizzled beard, clipped rather close at
the sides, betrayed the angles of the strong jaw as he set his teeth
and rose to let in his visitor. He was r