`` Peter has got his lawsuits settled and has hushed up the talk about swindling , somehow . Trust him for slipping out of a scrape clean and clever . He do n't seem to worry any , but Lige looks like a walking skeleton . Some folks pity him , but I say he should have kept the run of things better and not have trusted everything to Peter . I hear he 's going out West in the Spring , to take up land in Alberta and try his hand at farming . Best thing he can do , I guess . Folks hereabouts have had enough of the Baxter breed . Newbridge will be well rid of them . '' Sara , who had been sitting in the dark corner by the stove , suddenly stood up , letting the black cat slip from her lap to the floor . Mrs. Eben glanced at her apprehensively , for she was afraid the girl was going to break out in a tirade against the complacent Harmon . But Sara only walked fiercely out of the kitchen , with a sound as if she were struggling for breath . In the hall she snatched a scarf from the wall , flung open the front door , and rushed down the lane in the chill , pure air of the autumn twilight . Her heart was throbbing with the pity she always felt for bruised and baited creatures . On and on she went heedlessly , intent only on walking away her pain , over gray , brooding fields and winding slopes , and along the skirts of ruinous , dusky pine woods , curtained with fine spun purple gloom . Her dress brushed against the brittle grasses and sere ferns , and the moist night wind , loosed from wild places far away , blew her hair about her face . At last she came to a little rustic gate , leading into a shadowy wood-lane . The gate was bound with willow withes , and , as Sara fumbled vainly at them with her chilled hands , a man 's firm step came up behind her , and Lige Baxter 's hand closed over her 's . `` Oh , Lige ! '' she said , with something like a sob . He opened the gate and drew her through .
She left her hand in his , as they walked XXXXX the lane where lissome boughs of young saplings flicked against their heads , and the air was wildly sweet with the woodsy odors .
At On as by for in into of through with