Their only virtue was that there were such a number of them.
Catherine and Mabel liked the bedrooms at the Manor, because being rather distinct in their tastes, and decidedly given to quarrel over the arrangements of their separate properties, it was impossible for them to sleep together.

Each girl had a room of her own, and these rooms did not even touch, for Mabel slept near her mother, and Catherine away in a wing by herself.

This wing could only be reached by a spiral staircase, and was pronounced by the timid Mabel to be odiously lonely.
Catherine, however, knew no fears, and enjoyed the privacy of her quaint little bedroom with its sloping roof and lattice window.
She bade her brother and sister good-night, and went up to it, now.
"You'll go to bed at once, won't you, Kitty ?" said Mabel, whose eyes were half-shut.

"Perhaps it _was_ only a rabbit I heard.

Only why did it flash white, and why did it sigh?
Well, I won't think of it any more.