Floating through the fog into his open window came the noises of the village as it set about living another day, precisely as it had lived innumerable days in the past.  The blast of the six-o’clock whistle from the planing-mill made the loose sashes of his windows rattle.  Came a lowing of cows and a clucking of hens, a woman’s calling.  The voices of men in conversation came so distinctly through the pall that it seemed a number of persons must be moving about their morning work, talking and shouting, right in the Renfrew yard.

But the thing that impressed Peter most was the solidity and stability of this Southern village that he could hear moving around him, and its certainty to go on in the future precisely as it had gone on in the past.  It was a tremendous force.  The very old manor about him seemed huge and intrenched in long traditions, while he, Peter Siner, was just a brown man, naked behind a screen and rather cold from the fog and damp of the morning.

He listened to old Rose clashing the kitchen utensils.  As he drew on his damp underwear, he wondered what he could say to old Rose that would persuade her into a little kindliness and tolerance for the white people.  As he listened he felt hopeless; he could never explain to the old creature that her own happiness depended upon the charity she extended to others.  She could never understand it.  She would live and die precisely the same bitter old beldam that she was, and nothing could ever assuage her.

While Peter was thinking of the old creature, she came shuffling along the back piazza with his breakfast.  She let herself in by lifting one knee to a horizontal, balancing the tray on it, then opening the door with her freed hand.

When the shutter swung open, it displayed the crone standing on one foot, wearing a man’s grimy sock, which had fallen down over a broken, run-down shoe.

In Peter’s mood the thought of this wretched old woman putting on such garments morning after morning was unspeakably pathetic.  He thought of his own mother, who had lived and died only a shade or two removed from the old crone’s condition.

Rose put down her foot, and entered the room with her lips poked out, ready to make instant attack if Peter mentioned his lack of supper the night before.

“Aunt Rose,” asked the secretary, with his friendly intent in his tones, “how came you to look in this morning and say you didn’t expect to find me in my room?”

She gave an unintelligible grunt, pushed the lamp to one side, and eased her tray to the table.

Peter finished touching his tie before one of those old-fashioned mirrors, not of cut-glass, yet perfectly true.  He came from the mirror and moved his chair, out of force of habit, so he could look up the street toward the Arkwrights’.

“Aunt Rose,” said the young man, wistfully, “why are you always angry?”

She bridled at this extraordinary inquiry.