At the first opportunity he must ask about Sister Angela's progress with
the wedding clothes. It was not long now till Christmas Eve, and he
wanted to hear more about the preparations for the marriage. These had
seemed to lag of late.
* * * * *
The blood-red sun went down behind threatening clouds on that terrible
day, and the second morning came in with a wintry storm of icy winds and
swirling snow. Then followed two more gloomy, gray days and two more
wild, black nights. The fifth day dawned still wilder and darker, but
Paul Colbert found strength to go away. On the sixth it seemed to Ruth
that her heart would break with its aching for his absence; and with the
sadness that came from listening to a sobbing wind which sighed
despairingly through the naked forest; and with watching a melancholy
rain which hung a dark curtain between Cedar House and the other side of
the river. And thus the dreadful time dragged on into the seventh
endless day, and still there was no news from Tippecanoe. A courier
could have brought it in a few hours by riding fast through the wide,
trackless wilderness, and swimming broad, unbridged rivers.
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