“Sorry, sir, I cannot make you a fire.  Hope the cold did not keep you awake?”

“Never slept better in my life, I did not mind the cold at all,” Grey said, and Anthony continued: 

“Yes, you like air, Tisicky my old woman says, and she sent me out last night for a pipe and some cubebs which you are to smoke three times a day.  Nothing like cubebs for your disorder.  Had it long?”

“Thank you, no, sir; you are very kind,” Grey said, with a little groan, as he wondered if the confounded things would make him sick, inasmuch as he had never smoked in his life.

Making his toilet with all speed, and finding the soapstone and hot water great comforts to him, he hastened down to the dining-room, where he found Neil, looking rather tired and worn, and out of sorts, as if there was something on his mind.

Neil had not slept well at all, though, after Archie, he had the best bed and the best room in the house, and, his fire burned all night and was replenished by Anthony, early in the morning.  He had been restless, and nervous, and had lain awake for hours, watching the flickering firelight on the wall, thinking of Bessie, and wondering if she would not be frozen stiff before morning.

He had known nothing of the exchange of rooms, and when he heard footsteps in the north chamber, which adjoined his, though it did not communicate with it, he supposed it was Bessie, and was surprised that she stepped so heavily, and moved the chairs with such a jerk.

At last, however, all was still; Bessie was asleep, no doubt, and did not feel the cold or hear the wind as he heard it moaning through the old yew trees, and screaming around the house, as if it were some restless spirit trying to get in.  Suddenly, however, there was a sound which made Neil start, and listen, and raise himself on his elbow to make sure he was not mistaken.

“No I am not” he whispered to himself.  “It is a snore,” and he gave a groan as he thought:  “Bessie snoring! and such snores! who would imagine that she could do anything so vulgar and unlady-like!  Heavens and earth, it is enough to raise the rafters!  If I did not know Bessie was in there.  I’d swear it was a man.  How can a girl—­and Bessie of all girls—­go it like that?” and the fastidious Neil stopped his ears with his fingers to shut out the obnoxious sounds which grew louder as Grey’s sleep became more profound.

There was a feeling of keen disappointment in Neil’s heart, a sense of something lost, or as if in some way he had been wronged, and then he thought of Blanche, and wondered if she snored, and how he could find out.

“It would be a tearer if she did, she is so much larger and coarser every way than Bessie,” he thought, as he finally put the pillow over his head so that he could not hear.

At last, however, the sound ceased as Grey, who only snored when he was very tired, half awoke and turned upon his side, nor was it resumed again.  But Neil could not sleep for thinking of it, and when at last he did fall into a restless slumber, he awoke suddenly with the impression that Bessie was frozen to death in the next room, and that Grey Jerrold was trying to bring her to life and calling her his darling.