"

"Yes."

"Quite distinct?"

"Quite."

"That's awright."

Miss Nippett sighed with some content.

"If 'e don't come soon, 'e'll be too late," murmured Miss Nippett after
an interval of seeming exhaustion.

Mavis waited with ears straining for the sound of the knocker on the
front door. Miss Nippett lay so that her weakening eyes could watch the
door of the bedroom. Now and again, Mavis addressed one or two remarks
to her, but the old woman merely shook her head, as if to convey that
she had neither the wish nor the strength for further speech. Mavis,
with a great fear, noted the failing light in her friend's eyes, but
was convinced that, for all the weakening of the woman's physical
processes, she desired as ardently as ever a sight of Mr Poulter before
she died. A few minutes later, a greyness crept into Miss Nippett's
face. Mavis repressed an inclination to fly from the room. Then,
although she feared to believe the evidence of her ears, a knock was
heard at the door. After what seemed an interval of centuries, she
heard footsteps ascending the stairs. Mavis glanced at Miss Nippett.
She was horrified to see that her friend was heedless of Mr Poulter's
possible approach. She moved quickly to the door. To her unspeakable
relief, Mr Poulter stood outside. She beckoned him quickly into the
room. He hastened to the bedside, where, after gazing sadly at the all
but unconscious Miss Nippett, he knelt to take the woman's wan, worn
hand in his. To Mavis's surprise, Miss Nippett's fingers at once closed
on those of Mr Poulter. As the realisation of his presence reached the
dying woman's understanding, a smile of infinite gladness spread over
her face: a rare, happy smile, which, as if by magic, effaced the
puckered forehead, the wasted cheeks, the long upper lip, to substitute
in their stead a great contentment, such as might be possessed by one
who has found a deep joy, not only after much travail, but as if, till
the last moment, the longed-for bliss had all but been denied. The wan
fingers grasped tighter and tighter; the smile faded a little before
becoming fixed.

Another moment, and "Poulter's" had lost the most devoted servant which
it had ever possessed.

CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE

THE ORDEAL

Mavis and Jill stood outside Mrs Gowler's, in the late evening of the
Wednesday after the day on which Miss Nippett had commenced her long,
long rest. Mavis had left the trunk she was bringing at the station (a