The boy's name was written in them in a
scrawling schoolboy hand; not once, but many times, after the fashion of
juvenile bibliopoles, with primitive rhymes in Latin and English setting
forth his proprietorship in the volumes. Caricatures were scribbled upon
the fly-leaves and margins of the books, the date whereof looked very old
to Marian, long before her own birth.
It was not till very late that she consented to leave the old man's side
and go to the room which had been got ready for her, to lie down for an
hour. She would not hear of any longer rest though the humble widow was
quite pathetic in her entreaties that the dear young lady would try to
get a good night's sleep, and would leave the care of Mr. Nowell to her,
who knew his ways, poor dear gentleman, and would watch over him as
carefully as if he had been her own poor husband, who kept his bed for a
twelvemonth before he died, and had to be waited on hand and foot. Marian
told this woman that she did not want rest. She had come to town on
purpose to be with her grandfather, and would stay with him as long as he
needed her care.
She did, however, consent to go to her room for a little in the early
November dawn, when Jacob Nowell had fallen into a profound sleep; but
when she did lie down, sleep would not come to her.
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