"Mr. Joad," she said to the old man, who was reading near the window, "that hall clock."
It seemed to Dora that a pallor crept over the red face of the man she addressed. However, he looked up quietly enough, and spoke to her with the greatest calmness.
"What about the hall clock, Miss Dora?" he asked in a puzzled tone.
"It is disturbing me again. I really must have it removed. In the dead hours I hear it strike in the most ghostly, graveyard fashion. As it did on that night," she concluded under her breath.
"Do you have many sleepless nights now?"
"How do you know that I have sleepless nights at all?" she asked quickly.
Joad looked at her in surprise.
"You told me so yourself shortly before we lost Julian," he said quietly. "It was toothache, was it not?"
"Yes--something of that sort," she answered carelessly. "But it is not toothache now. Still, I lie awake thinking."
"Of me?" said Joad with a leer.