The Queen of Sheba and my Cousin the Colonel by Thomas Bailey Aldrich

By the time Lynde had changed his wet clothing, the rain had turned / into a dull drizzle, which folded itself like a curtain about the / valley. Mont Blanc, with its piled-up acres of desolation, loomed / through the mist, a shapeless, immeasurable cloud, within whose shadow / the little town was to live darkly, half blotted out, for the next four / days.

Lynde spent the afternoon between his own chamber and the reading-room / of the hotel, wandering restlessly from one to the other, and not / venturing to halt at Mrs. Denham's door to inquire after Ruth. Though / he held himself nearly guiltless in what had occurred, Mrs. Denham's / rebuking tone and gesture had been none the less intolerable. He was / impatient to learn Ruth's condition, and was growing every moment more / anxious as he reflected on her extreme delicacy and the severe exposure / she had undergone; but he could not bring himself just then to go to / Mrs. Denham for information. He concluded to wait until he met her at / dinner; but Mrs. Denham did not come down to the table d'hote.