During the first three years at Nannizabuloe, old Mrs. Venning had
regularly been carried downstairs to dine with the family.
The sea-air (she said) had put new life into her. But now she seldom
moved from her room, and Taffy seldom saw her except at night, when--
after the old childish custom--he knocked at her door to wish her
pleasant dreams and pull up the weights of the tall clock which stood
by her bed's head.
One night he asked carelessly, "What do you want with the clock?
Lying here you don't need to know the time; and its ticking must keep
you awake."
"So it does, child; but bless you, I like it."
"Like being kept awake?"
"Dear, yes! I have enough of rest and quiet up here. You mind the
litany I used to say over to you?--Parson Kempthorne taught it to us
girls when I was in service with him; 'twas made up, he said, by
another old Devonshire parson, years and years ago--"
"'When I lie within my bed
Sick in heart and sick in head,
And with doubts discomforted,
Sweet Spirit, comfort me!
When the house do sigh and weep--'"
"That's it. You wouldn't think how quiet it is up here all day.
But at night, when you're in bed and sleeping, all the house begins
to talk; little creakings of furniture, you know, and the wind in the
chimney and sometimes the rain in the gutter, running--it's all talk
to me.
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