Without a word the dwarf went to the lawyer.
"I'm going to Ithaca. Go down and stay with Tess until I get back."
He turned and went out, and Andy, silent and sick at heart, followed him down the stairs.
Andy was not able to persuade Tess to talk with him, but obeying Professor Young, he stayed very near her. The blizzard howled and banged outside, adding by its noisy commotion an element of dread to the grief within.
About nine in the evening footsteps sounded on the porch; the dwarf got up and went to the door. Jake Brewer entered and closed the door against the storm. The squatter took off his hat and shook the snow from the top of it. He looked, alternately, from the girl in the chair near the window to the little man staring up at him.
"I come to speak to the brat," he said.
"She ain't very well," answered Andy.
Tessibel looked around.
"Sit down, Jake," she invited. "The night's dreadful, isn't it?"