She never clasped a pair together without a little
half-uttered ejaculation, "Oh, bring me and my dear young love thus
together again!" And when she found a couple making a perfect heart,
and holding together through all, she kissed it tenderly in the hope
that thus it might be with her and with him whose hand and whose
voice returned on her, calling her his dearest life!
She durst only quit the shells to eat the dinner which Madge served
at one o'clock--a tolerable meal of slices of cold beef from a cook's-
shop, but seasoned with sour looks and a murmur at ladies' fancies.
The weariness and languor of the former day's exertions made her for
the present disinclined to explore the house, even had she had time,
and when twilight came there could have been little but fragments at
the bottom of the case, though she could see no more to sort them.
And what were these noises around her making her start? Rats! Yes,
here they were, venturing out from all the corners. They knew there
had been food in the room. This was why Madge had those to gaunt,
weird-looking cats in her kitchen! Aurelia went and sat on the step
into the court to be out of their way, but Madge hunted her in that
the door might be shut and barred; and when she returned trembling to
the sitting room, she heard such a scampering and a scrambling that
she durst not enter, and betook herself to her chamber and to bed.
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