the stranger s figure remained present to her hours afterwards when she sat at the window her needle and his words seemed newly and son l again and again he had touched the spring that opened her whole life and if she lost him for a short space it was only among the many shapes of the one great recollection of which that life was made musing and working by turns now herself to be steady at her needle for a long time together and now letting her work fall on her lap and her thoughts led found the hours glide by her and the day steal on the morning which had been bright and clear gradually became a sharp wind set in the rain fell heavily and the dark mist drooping over the distant town hid it from the view she often looked with compassion at such a time upon the who came wandering into by the great highway hard by and who foot sore and weary and gazing fearfully at the huge town before them as if that their misery there would be but as a drop of water in the sea or as a grain of sea sand on the shore went shrinking on before the angry weather and looking as if the very elements rejected them day after day such travellers crept past but always as thought in one always towards the town up in one phase or other of its towards which they seemed impelled by a desperate fascination they never returned food for the the the the river fever madness vice and death they passed on to the monster roaring in the distance and were lost the chill wind was howling and the rain was falling and the day was darkening when raising her eyes from the work on which she had long since been engaged with constancy saw one of these travellers approaching a woman a solitary woman of some thirty years of age tall well formed handsome miserably dressed the soil of many country roads in varied dust chalk clay gravel � on her grey cloak by the streaming wet no bonnet on her head nothing to defend her rich black hair from the rain but a torn handkerchief with the fluttering ends of which and with her hair the wind blinded her so that she often stopped to push them back and look upon the way she was going and son she was in the act of doing so when her ab her hands parting on her sun burnt forehead swept across face and threw aside the that ached upon it there was a reckless and regardless beauty in it a and indifference to more than weather a carelessness of what was cast her bare head from heaven or earth that coupled with her misery and loneliness the heart of her fellow she thought of all that was and within her no less than without of modest graces of the mind hardened and like these attractions of the person of the many of the creator to the winds like the wild hair of all the beautiful ruin upon which the storm was beating and the night was coming thinking of this she did not turn away with a delicate indignation � too many of her own compassionate and tender sex too often but pitied her her fallen sister came on looking far before her trying with her eager eyes to pierce the mist in which the city was and glancing now and then from side to side with the bewildered and uncertain aspect of a stranger though her tread was bold and courageous she was fatigued and after a moment of sat down upon a heap of stones seeking no shelter from the rain but letting it rain on her as it would she was now opposite the house raising her head resting it for a moment on both hands her eyes met those of in a moment was at the door and the other rising from her seat at her came slowly and with no look towards her why do you rest in the rain said gently because i have no other resting place was the reply but there are many places of shelter near here this referring to the little porch is better than where you were you are very welcome to rest here the wanderer looked at her in doubt and surprise but with hit any of and sitting down and q and son off one of her worn shoes to heat out the fragments of stone and dust that were inside showed that her foot was cut an uttering an expression of pity the traveller looked up with a contemptuous and incredulous smile why what s a torn foot to such as me she said and what s a torn foot in such as me to such as you come in and wash it answered mildly and let me give you something to hind it up tlie woman caught her arm and drawing it her own eyes hid them against it and wept not like a woman hut like a stem man surprised into that weakness with a violent heaving of her breast and struggle for recovery that showed how unusual the emotion was with heir she submitted to be led into the house and evidently more in gratitude than in any care for herself washed and bound the injured place then put before her the fragments of her own dinner and when she had eaten of them though her before her road which she showed her anxiety to do to dry her clothes before the fire again more in gratitude than with any evidence of concern in her own behalf she sat down in front of it and the handkerchief about her head and letting her thick wet hair fall down below her waist sat drying it with the palms of her hands and looking at 