The General came in tip-toe, trying to avoid creaking on the bare boards, which Nelly preferred to carpets.

But his precaution was unnecessary.
She was lying wide-awake.

The darkness of her eyes in her face, unnaturally white from the moonlight, frightened him.

He had a memory of Nelly's mother as he had seen her newly-dead, and the memory scared him.
"Is that you, papa ?" Nelly asked, half-lifting herself on her pillow.
"Come and sit down.

I was thinking of dressing myself and coming down to you." "You mustn't do that if your headache is not better." "It was nothing at all of a headache," she said with a weary little sigh, "but I must have fallen asleep.