isturb her; no sound but the soft dripping,
now and again, of a cinder in the grate before which Brother Bonaday
sat, with misery in his heart.

"Corona!"

The voice was low and tremulous. It followed on the sound of a loud
sneeze. Either the voice or the sneeze (or both) aroused her, and
she sat up in bed with a start. Like Chaucer's Canace, of sleep "She
was full mesurable, as women be."

"Corona!"

"Is that you, Daddy?" she asked, jumping out of bed and tiptoeing to
the door.

What the hour was she could not tell: but she knew it must be late,
for a shaft of moonlight fell through a gap in the window-curtains
and shone along the floor.

"Are you ill? . . . Shall I run and call them up at the Nunnery?"

"I was listening. . . . I have been listening here for some time, and
I could not hear you breathing."

"Dear Daddy . . . is that all? Go back to your bed--it's wicked of
you to be out of it, with the nights turning chilly as they are.
I'll go back to mine and try to snore, if that's any comfort."

"I haven't been to bed at all. I couldn't . . . Corona!"

"You are not to turn the key!" she commanded in a whisper, for he was
fumbling with it. "Uncle Copas pretended he was taking it away with
him: or that was what I understood, and if he breaks an understanding
it's _his_ affair."

"I--I thought, dear, you might be hungry."

"Well, and suppose I am?"

Corona, now she came to think of it, was ravenous.

"I've a slice of bread here, and a cold sausage. If you'll wrap
yourself up and come out, we can toast them both: the fire is still
clear."

"As if I should think of it! . . . And it's lucky for you, Daddy, the
key's on your side of the door. You ought to be ashamed of yourself,
out of bed at--what _is_ the time?"

"Past ten o'clock."

"You are not telling me a fib, I hope, about keeping up a clear
fire?" said Corona sternly.

"If you like, I will open the door just a little: then you can see
for yourself."

"Cer--tainly not. But if you've been looking after yourself
properly, why did you sneeze just now?"

"'Sneeze'? I never sneezed."

Silence, for a moment--

"_Somebody_ sneezed . . . I 'stinctly heard it," Corona insisted.
"Now I come to think, it sounded--"

There was another pause while, with a question in her eye, she turned
and stared at the casement. Then, as surmise grew to certainty, a
little laugh bubbled within her. She stepped to the window.

"Good night, Uncle C