It adjoined Walter's, though the doors did not open
into the same passage; and she shut that which closed in the long
gallery, where her room and that of her sisters were, so that the
Roundhead sentry might not be able to look down it.
As soon as she was in her own room, she threw herself on her knees,
and prayed fervently for help and support in their dire distress. In
the stillness, as she knelt, she heard an interchange of voices,
which she knew must be those of her brothers in the next room. She
went nearer to that side, and heard them more distinctly. She was
even able to distinguish when Edmund spoke, and when Walter broke
forth in impatient exclamations. A sudden thought struck her. She
might be able to join in the conversation. There had once been a
door between the two rooms, but it had long since been stopped up,
and the recess of the doorway was occupied by a great oaken cupboard,
in which were preserved all the old stores of rich farthingales of
brocade, and velvet mantles, which had been heirlooms from one Dame
of Mowbray to another, till poverty had caused them to be cut up and
adapted into garments for the little Woodleys.
Rose looked anxiously at the carved doors of the old wardrobe. Had
she the key? She felt in her pouch. Yes, she had not given it back
to her mother since taking out the sheets for Mr.
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