"The weather is terrible!" said the lady, with a sad, winning smile, and with her beautiful eyes bent upon the man.
He thought that she was terrified by the lightning, and this brought his kind nature back again.
"This—oh! this is nothing, madam. Think of the storms we used to have in the Alps, and at sea."
A beautiful brilliancy came into the lady's eyes.
"True, this is nothing compared to them: and the evening, it is not yet entirely dark!"
"The storm makes it dark—that is all. It isn't far off from sun-down by the time!" answered Jacob, taking out an old silver watch, and examining it by the window.
"Jacob, are you very tired?"
"Tired, ma'm! What on earth should make me tired? One would think I had been hoeing all day, to hear such questions!"
The lady hesitated. She seemed ashamed to speak again, and her voice faltered as she at length forced herself to say—
"Then, Jacob, as you are not quite worn out—perhaps you will get me a carriage—there must be stables in the neighborhood."