The furnace protested long and hackingly like the lungs of an old smoker at an early morning cigarette.

Heidi? Kurtz echoed. Heidi? That's a damned odd name for an English elder sister, isn't it? Not for Heidi, it isn't, she replied buoyantly, and scored an immediate laugh from the kids beyond the lighting. Heidi because her parents went to Switzerland for their honeymoon, she explained; and Switzerland was where Heidi was conceived. Among the edelweiss, she added, with a sigh.

Unlike most historic sites, which tend to ossify into Havishamesque stillness, Chesterwood, the turn-of-the-century home of popular academic sculptor Daniel Chester French, welcomes the fresh breezes of life.

This resulted in the aircraft’s encounter at low altitude with a microburst-induced, severe wind shear from a rapidly developing thunderstorm located on the final approach course.