For a time he stood motionless in front of the sink. Two, three times he read the letter, uncomprehending, until he became aware of his feet. The cold of the floor tiles had numbed them as if he was standing on bare ice. He looked down and saw frozen toes,swollen and blistered with frostbite, feet blackened by dying tissue. A girl, half naked and rigid in the snow... the beautiful endless snow. Flickering at the edge of this blinding whiteness were the sharp features of the little fox, a shadow creature of his conscience.