The countryside appeared to crouch
under a passive, laden-colored sky. Then the snow came settling in
deeper and deeper layers, and, as it packed down, a coating of thin ice
formed on its surface. One could walk on it at times, this crust that
had grown over the land like a new skin.
We smuggled sweaters and coats to Lisbeth, making them old lest Con
suspect us. But, even with all we could do for her, her suffering must
have been without comparison. There was no fire in the shack except that
in the old rusty cook stove which she tended, and the cold made an easy
entrance through the loose carpentry of the walls. With it all there
were the loneliness and the mental agony. At first, when she did not
know how deep was Jim's devotion, there must have been times when life
held out no promise to her except that of escape.
All this time the rest of the Dartons gave no sign. Old Con, I
discovered, made occasional obscure trips to the city where he saw Lin
Darton and Miss Etta, the former established as a second-rate
real-estate dealer, the latter, as buyer for a large department store.
Later it became more apparent that it was after these trips of his that
he was able to purchase another horse. He quoted more and more
frequently from the Bible and the "Elegy." Such feeling as any of the
neighbors may have had for Lisbeth was now completely turned aside by
her tight-lipped reticence and her deft evasion of all references to her
situation.
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