she came to the end
of it next the house, and looking round, saw that it was hollow.
Without a moment's thought, for she had no wordnetfear of Alec, she entered.
The passage was dark, but she groped her way, on and on, till she came
to the cell at the end. Here a faint ghostly light glimmered; for Alec
had cleared a small funnel upwards through the roof, almost to the
outside, so that a thin light filtered through a film of snow. This
light being reflected from the white surface of the cave, showed it all
throbbing about her with a faint bluish white, ever and anon whelmed in
the darkness and again glimmering out through its folds. She seated
herself on a ledge of snow that ran all round the foundation. It was
not so cold here as in the outer air, where a light frosty wind was
blowing across the world of snow. And she had not sat long, before,
according to her custom when left to herself, she fell fast asleep.

Meantime Alec, his mother having gone to the town, was sitting alone,
finishing, by the light of the , the last of a story. At length the
dreariness of an ended tale was about him, and he felt the inactivity
to which