Gilbert Parker

“ Their senses were concentrated on one thing—the end of the journey, rest, food, the warm stable at Pardon's Drive. Their tragedy would be in not getting there; Norah's tragedy might be—would it be?—in getting there.
None knows the silence of this world who has not been blanketed by falling snow and swept by drift. There is no universe, no time, nothing but this wheeling sphere of your own in which you move alone—alone, the whole world dead but you. ”

“ Life took its tribute through death, and, with a harsh hand, had destroyed its own.
"Norah is asking for you," the woman said. "There never was a braver. Ah, but there's a heart for you! No man deserves it. She would have gone and left the boy alive to you, if she'd known. She sez so. No man's worth it, that's my idee. But it wasn't to be, and it was flying in the face of Providence. But she did her best, poor dearie."
Nolan did not answer, but he could have throttled her for the truths she had uttered. ”

“ Five years since his own wedding with Norah, and no child—he had not realized when he married that it would be a miracle if a child came to them. In truth, he had not thought at all about that. They had gone through so much together in the days of tragedy that being man and wife was the only thought in his mind when they went to the altar. But with marriage had come the other instinct, and he had dwelt much upon it. He wanted a child as the hart desires the water-springs ”

“ Then the months of patient waiting had gone, with Nolan driving his four-horse—in the gaiety of his heart sometimes his six-horse—team, with his great red stage, and the coaching-horn defying the distant railway with shrill bravery, and receiving the shy congratulations of women-folk and a hearty "Good luck to ye!" from men on every hand. ”

“ THE next morning when they left, Nolan's good-by and his gay wink and word to Annette with the hair like a harvest of wheat in the sun were careless enough for Norah to be sure that the farewell of its kind was final. And so it was. But Annette—who knows? The heart of a woman is a strange thing. ”

“ The old man got up and came over to her. "Who is she? Where does she live? Where does he see her, Norah girl?" he asked.
She sprang to her feet. "Don't call me girl again," she cried. "I'm none o' that. I ought to have stayed with you. Shure, me spring was long since done. Me summer is that far gone 'tis but a memory, and me winter's here. And it's cold—God knows it's cold." she said drearily.
"Who is she?" urged her mother.
" 'Tis the sister of Jacques Charron, that keeps the tavern at Pardon's Drive. Nolan passes every day. ”

“ Norah broke in with a passionate gesture.
"Hush, for shame on ye!" spoke her mother. "Have ye no pride? The man's yours, and he knows he's yours, and what's to fear, I want to know?"
Norah gave a bitter laugh. "D'ye think all men are like your own husband?" she asked harshly. "Nolan's turned from me to her." ”

“ The trail's waitin' for ye."
"Nolan Doyle," said the Young Doctor, who understood the assumed indifference—that smooth, outer mask which holds the rough, inner pain—"Nolan, you're wanted now."
"Did ye iver see a finer day!" said Nolan, not able to look the Young Doctor in the eyes, for he knew that trouble of some dark kind was come. "Norah'll be glad it's a day like this—'Happy is the birth that the sun shines on; happy are the dead that the rain rains on,'" he added; but his fingers trembled on the rein he held, as he quickly drew the colt nearer. ”

“ Her eyes took on a strange look as she recited Nolan's song:
"'Shure, the longest day has endin', and the wildest storm has fallin'—
There's a young gossoon in yander, and he sits upon my knee;
There's a churchful for the christenin—do you hear the imp a-callin'?
⁠He's the pride of Mary Callaghan and me!'"
"It's like a man singin' to hide his shame," she added.
"What's that ye're sayin', Norah?" asked her mother. "What's the shame y'are speakin' of, then?" ”

“ I'm an old woman. I never was a wife for him, and he knows it, and he knew it from the first. And I couldn't carry it through with all my willin' and fightin'—'twas no matter for prayin' that, but just flyin' in the face of Providence. But the willin' and the fightin' come to nothin' ”

“ If I was a man I would kill you." Annette Charron's fingers twitched.
"Ye flaunt the child in my face—" Norah burst out in a high-pitched voice, but got no further, for Nolan caught her arm with a grip that made her cry out.
"Be still, woman!" he said in a voice gone suddenly hard. "Would ye wake the dead? Can't ye let the dead lie in peace with—with the promise I made?"
"What's dead?" asked Norah in a trembling voice, for it came upon her all at once that she had blundered terribly.
"Can't ye be kind?" Nolan protested. "You that's just back from the dead. Norah ”

“ The Charron girl yonder's a good girl, but only likin' to be noticed by a handsome man. Lave be and he'll right himself,' he said. 'If he doesn't, ye can't cure it by interferin''—that's what he said; an' he's a man that's got more sinse than you or me, or anny of us. ”