The Storm — Frances Sarah Moore

The storm begin innocently enough as a steady drizzle, but as if fell the rain turned to ice -- and soon an entire community was isolated. Julia Ross, on her way to New York City from a ski lodge in Canada, was forced to turn back in Maine. And Noah McClary, on his way to his wedding in New York, was forced to abandon his car in the ditch where the ice-coated road had sent it.

But Julia and Noah, who had never met before, waited out the storm in the parsonage of Julia's father and mother, in the small town of Ardwyck, Maine, disliking each other intensely and impatiently waiting for the roads to be cleared.

Ad when at last Julia and Noah reached the city, Gilbert Purdy, the man Julia had gone to Canada to meet -- and had missed there -- had already left for Mexico, and the girl Noah was to have married had been spirited out of town by her indigent parents.