They sat in quietness for a while, and then Mr. Quinn fell asleep, and Henry went down to the library and worked again on his new novel, for which he had not yet found a title; and in his sleep, Mr. Quinn died.
3
Henry had finished a chapter of the book, and he put down his pen, and yawned. He was tired, and he thought gratefully of tea. Hannah would bring a tray to his father's room. There would be little soda farls and toasted barn-brack, and perhaps she would have made "slim-jim," and there would be newly-churned butter and home-made jam, which Hannah, in her Ulster way, would call "Preserve." ...
He got up from the table and went into the hall.
"Will tea be long, Hannah?" he called down the stairs, leading to the kitchens.
"Haven't I it near ready?" she answered.
He had gone up the staircase at a run, and had entered his father's room, expecting to see him sitting up....
"Hilloa," he said, stopping sharply, "still asleep!" and he went out of the room and called softly to Hannah, now coming up the stairs, to take the tray to the library. "He's asleep, Hannah!" he said almost in a whisper.
"He's never asleep at this hour," she answered.
And somehow, as she said that, he knew. He went back into the room and leant over his father, listening....