"What is the matter, Koosje ?" he asked, regarding her gravely over his spectacles.
"There's a woman outside--dying," she panted, "I fell over her."
"You had better try to get her in then," the old gentleman said, in quite a relieved tone. "You and Dortje must bring her in. Dear, dear, poor soul! but it is a dreadful night."
The old gentleman shivered as he spoke, and drew a little nearer to the tall white porcelain stove.
It was, as he had said a minute before, a terrible night. He could hear the wind beating about the house and rattling about the casements and moaning down the chimneys; and to think any poor soul should be out on such a night, dying ! Heaven preserve others who might be belated or houseless in any part of the world!
He fell into a fit of abstraction,--a habit not un
