1 When Ethan drove into Hale's yard the builder was just getting out of his sleigh.
2 "Jotham Powell brought some goods over from the Flats for his wife, and he drove right on home with them," she explained.
3 She gave him a last nod of sympathy while her son chirped to the horse; and Ethan, as she drove off, stood in the middle of the road and stared after the retreating sleigh.
4 He flung the bearskin into the sleigh, climbed to the seat, and drove up to the house.
5 They drove slowly up the road between fields glistening under the pale sun, and then bent to the right down a lane edged with spruce and larch.
6 Ethan drove on in silence till they reached a part of the wood where the pines were more widely spaced, then he drew up and helped Mattie to get out of the sleigh.
7 As they drove away the sun sank behind the hill and the pine-boles turned from red to grey.
8 There seemed to be no answer to this, and again they drove on for a while without speaking.
9 He stretched out his legs, drove his heels into the road to keep the sled from slipping forward, and bent her head back between his hands.
10 The sled swerved in response, but he righted it again, kept it straight, and drove down on the black projecting mass.
11 Anger and hurt pride drove out some of the pain.
12 And then her rage broke, the same rage that drove Gerald to murder and other Irish ancestors to misdeeds that cost them their necks.
13 But he only squeezed her hand until he drove her rings into the flesh.
14 Since that day, she only saw him formally, once a month, when Uncle Peter drove her to his office to get the housekeeping money.
15 Deliverance came in the form she least expected when, during the after-dinner-nap period, Mrs. Merriwether and Mrs. Elsing drove up.