A ruddy beam fell through the windows at Greystones and made a pool of light upon the floor. In the midst of it Lucy sat with her chin resting upon her hands. Mistress Lynn was propped against her pillows, and, though her face had begun to wear the almost unearthly look of extreme old age, and the eye-sockets were far sunken in her head, the eyes themselves burnt with their old sharp light.
"It's likely I shall never see you again, great-granddaughter," she said, "unless the Lord has forgotten me, lying here so long in the big bed. A hundred years is a great span for one human body to take to herself. Life grows tedisome at times. Still, I've known most things worth knowing, seen most things worth seeing, aye, and had most things worth having, though you'll not believe that, my lass."
Lucy looked up from her day-dreaming for a moment, and remarked:
"You've been very kind to me lately, great-granny."
"Oh, I's smit with a sickness that takes the old folk whiles—a kind of softening of the vitals; with some it's the brain, with others it's the heart."
"You mustn't talk of leaving us, great-granny. Peter's promised to bring me to see you in the summer-time."
"I doubt you'll find Barbara mistress of Greystones, then."
"I wish Barbara would marry."
"She'll never marry. She sends the lads trotting before they get their noses through the door."
"I used to think, when I was a bairn, that a lord would one day ride by and carry her off. Timothy said she should have a crown."