By little and little he got tired of the bustle of the day, the noise of carriages and carts, and people passing and re-passing; and would fall asleep, or be troubled with a restless, and uneasy sense again—­the child could hardly tell whether this were in his sleeping or his waking moments—­of that rushing river.

“Why will it never stop, Floy?” he would sometimes ask her.  “It is bearing me away I think.”

But Floy could always soothe and reassure him:  and it was his daily delight to make her lay her head down on his pillow, and take some rest.

“You are always watching me, Floy, let me watch you now.”  They would prop him up with cushions in a corner of his bed, and there he would recline the while she lay beside him, bending forwards oftentimes to kiss her.

Thus the flush of the day in its heat and light, would gradually decline; and again the golden water would be dancing on the wall.

He was visited by as many as three grave doctors—­they used to assemble downstairs and come up together—­and the room was so quiet and Paul was so observant of them (though he never asked of anybody what they said) that he even knew the difference in the sound of their watches.

The people round him changed as unaccountably as on that first night at Doctor Blimber’s—­except Florence; Florence never changed.  Old Mrs. Pipchin dozing in an easy chair, often changed to someone else and Paul was quite content to shut his eyes again and see what happened next, without emotion.  But one figure with its head upon its hand returned so often and remained so long, and sat so still and solemn, never speaking, never being spoken to, and rarely lifting up its face, that Paul began to wonder languidly if it were real.

“Floy,” he said, “what is that?”

“Where, dearest?”

“There, at the bottom of the bed.”

“There’s nothing there except papa.”

The figure lifted up its head, and rose, and coming to the bedside said:  “My own boy!  Don’t you know me?”

Paul looked it in the face and thought, was this his father?  But the face so altered to his thinking, thrilled while he gazed, as if it were in pain; and before he could reach out both his hands to take it between them and draw it towards him, the figure turned away quickly from the little bed, and went out at the door.  The next time he observed the figure sitting at the bottom of the bed, he called to it: 

“Don’t be so sorry for me, dear papa.  Indeed, I am quite happy.”

His father coming and bending down to him, which he did quickly, Paul held him round the neck and repeated those words to him several times and very earnestly.  This was the beginning of his always saying in the morning that he was a great deal better, and that they were to tell his father so.

How many times the golden water danced on the wall; how many nights the dark, dark river rolled away towards the sea in spite of him, Paul never counted, never sought to know.  If their kindness could have increased, or his sense of it, they were more kind, and he more grateful every day; but whether they were many days or few appeared of little moment now to the gentle boy.