Section 3- Chapter 5: Until Bedtime and Chapter 6: Coverdale's Sick Chamber Summary

In "Until Bedtime", after dinner, Silas cobbles an old pair of boots by the kitchen fire while the rest of the party adjourns to the sitting room. Priscilla places herself timidly and trustingly into Zenobia's protections, occasionally looking up to admire Zenobia's beauty. Coverdale suspects that Priscilla idolizes Zenobia, as younger women often idolize older, brilliant women, and has come to be Zenobia's slave. When he suggests this to Zenobia, Zenobia claims that Priscilla is likely a seamstress who will do her miscellaneous sewing as she can tell "by tokens that escape the obtuseness of masculine perceptions" (page 19). Coverdale suspects that Priscilla overheard Zenobia's disdainful comments when he notices her gazing at them sorrowfully; Zenobia claims that she is not positively ill-natured and intends to...