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Page:The Copper Box - Fletcher (1923).djvu/41

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The Second Stranger
39

"Don't think you're going to be a prisoner for very long," she suddenly remarked, interpreting my silent contemplation of the vast waste of whiteness. "At this time of the year the snow goes quickly. You needn't be surprised if you find it vanished when you wake to-morrow, thick as it is."

"If it is, and we can get out, you'll show me some of your favourite scenes?" I suggested. "I could make a sketch or two."

"Of course!" she assented. "There's a lovely bit along the road towards Roddam. I'll take you there as soon as the snow's gone; you'll be ravished with it!"

We had three days' wait for that, and during that time, as if they felt themselves bound to compensate me for the delay, my host and hostess did all they could to amuse and interest me, though, to tell the truth, I was interested enough in them personally, and needed no other diversion. Mr. Parslewe was certainly a character, full of eccentricities, with a strong sense of humour, and a mordant wit; he had evidently seen much of men and of the world, and his comments on things in general were as interesting as they were