1 Down the side wall facing the window stood a row of kitchen chairs from which the older women had just risen.
2 It was Zeena's habit, when they came back late from the village, to leave the key of the kitchen door under the mat.
3 Against the dark background of the kitchen she stood up tall and angular, one hand drawing a quilted counterpane to her flat breast, while the other held a lamp.
4 She drew aside without speaking, and Mattie and Ethan passed into the kitchen, which had the deadly chill of a vault after the dry cold of the night.
5 She walked out of the kitchen ahead of them and pausing in the hall raised the lamp at arm's-length, as if to light them up the stairs.
6 "I guess I won't come up yet awhile," he said, turning as if to go back to the kitchen.
7 Without answering he moved away toward the kitchen.
8 It was a slow trudge home through the heavy fields, and when the two men entered the kitchen Mattie was lifting the coffee from the stove and Zeena was already at the table.
9 It was warm and bright in the kitchen.
10 The kitchen was a poor place, not "spruce" and shining as his mother had kept it in his boyhood; but it was surprising what a homelike look the mere fact of Zeena's absence gave it.
11 That supposition was even more disturbing than the other; and it was the one which had come to him the night before, when he had seen her standing in the kitchen door.
12 She stood just as Zeena had stood, a lifted lamp in her hand, against the black background of the kitchen.
13 She struggled to her feet, and he rose and followed her helplessly while she spread out the pieces of glass on the kitchen dresser.
14 Without replying he gathered the pieces of glass into his broad palm and walked out of the kitchen to the passage.
15 Having satisfied himself that there was no risk of immediate discovery he went back to the kitchen with a lighter step, and found Mattie disconsolately removing the last scraps of pickle from the floor.