Please exert yourself, Miss Emily--I am waiting to be interested." Emily appeared to be unwilling to exert herself.

She preferred talking of the weather.
"Isn't the wind rising ?" she said.
There could be no doubt of it.

The leaves in the garden were beginning to rustle, and the pattering of the rain sounded on the windows.
Francine (as her straight chin proclaimed to all students of physiognomy) was an obstinate girl.

Determined to carry her point she tried Emily's own system on Emily herself--she put questions.
"Have you been long at this school ?" "More than three years." "Have you got any brothers and sisters ?" "I am the only child." "Are your father and mother alive ?" Emily suddenly raised herself in bed.
"Wait a minute," she said; "I think I hear it again." "The creaking on the stairs ?" "Yes." Either she was mistaken, or the change for the worse in the weather made it not easy to hear slight noises in the house.

The wind was still rising.