"
"And Nina," Edith asked faintly, "how is she?"
"Improving, Arthur thinks, though she misses you very much."
Edith drew a long, deep sigh, and when next she spoke, she said,
"Take me to the window, please, I want to see the country."
In an instant, Victor, who knew well what she wanted, took her in
his arms, and carrying her to the window, set her down in the
chair which Grace brought for her; then, as if actuated by the
same impulse, both left her and returned to the fire, while she
looked across the snow-clad fields to where Grassy Spring reared
its massive walls, now basking in the winter sun. It was a
mournful pleasure to gaze at that lonely building, with its barred
doors, its closed shutters, and the numerous other tokens it gave
of being nearly deserted. There was no smoke curling from the
chimneys, no friendly door opened wide, no sweet young face
peering from the iron lattice of the Den, no Arthur, no Nina
there. Nothing but piles of snow upon the roof, snow upon the
window-sills, snow upon the doorsteps, snow upon the untrodden
walk, snow on the leafless elms, standing there so bleak and
brown.
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