CHAPTER IX.
ROBIN COCKSCROFT Nothing ever was allowed to stop Mrs.Anerley from seeing to the bedrooms.

She kept them airing for about three hours at this time of the sun-stitch--as she called all the doings of the sun upon the sky--and then there was pushing, and probing, and tossing, and pulling, and thumping, and kneading of knuckles, till the rib of every feather was aching; and then (like dough before the fire) every well-belabored tick was left to yeast itself a while.

Winnie, the maid, was as strong as a post, and wore them all out in bed-making.

Carroway heard the beginning of this noise, but none of it meddled at all with his comfort; he lay back nicely in a happy fit of chair, stretched his legs well upon a bench, and nodded, keeping slow time with the breathings of his pipe, and drawing a vapory dream of ease.

He had fared many stony miles afoot that morning; and feet, legs, and body were now less young than they used to be once upon a time.