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She and his father had been at variance from his earliest reid silence, glancing in

dread from the one averted face to the other, had been the peacefullest

occupation of his childhood She gave hiers muffled in worsted This embrace concluded, he sat down on

the opposite side of her little table There was a fire in the grate,

as there had been night and day for fifteen years There was a kettle on

the hob, as there had been night and day for fifteen years There was a

little mound of damped ashes on the top of the fire, and another little

ht and day

for fifteen years There was a smell of black dye in the airless roo out of the crape and stuff of the

's dress for fifteen months, and out of the bier-like sofa for

fifteen years 'Mother, this is a change from your old active habits'

'The world has narrowed to these di round the room 'It is well for me that I never set my heart

upon its hollow vanities' The old influence of her presence and her stern strong voice, so