Miss Greta closed her eyes. Quickly, however, did she open them again; for a dull noise, with certain whiskings-about and flutterings, together with low clatterings, approached her ear.

The inmost oratory of my soul, Wherein thou ever dwellest quick or dead, Is black with grief eternal for thy sake.

‘Tradecraft, Chris,’ Enderby put in, who liked his bit of jargon, and Martindale, still piano, shot him a glance of admiration.

Our chimney was a square hole in the roof: it was but a little part of the smoke that found its way out, and the rest eddied about the house, and kept us coughing and piping the eye.