said the Carrier , surprised by the rapidity of this consent . `` Well ! I do n't object ; but still I 'm not quite sure that -- '' `` Hush ! '' she interrupted . `` Dear John ! '' `` Why , he 's stone deaf , '' urged John . `` I know he is , but -- Yes , sir , certainly . Yes , certainly ! I 'll make him up a bed directly , John . '' As she hurried off to do it , the flutter of her spirits , and the agitation of her manner , were so strange , that the Carrier stood looking after her , quite confounded . `` Did its mothers make it up a Beds , then ! '' cried Miss Slowboy to the Baby ; `` and did its hair grow brown and curly when its caps was lifted off , and frighten it , a precious Pets , a sitting by the fires ! '' With that unaccountable attraction of the mind to trifles , which is often incidental to a state of doubt and confusion , the Carrier , as he walked slowly to and fro , found himself mentally repeating even these absurd words , many times . So many times , that he got them by heart , and was still conning them over and over , like a lesson , when Tilly , after administering as much friction to the little bald head with her hand as she thought wholesome -LRB- according to the practice of nurses -RRB- , had once more tied the Baby 's cap on . `` And frighten it , a precious Pets , a sitting by the fires . What frightened Dot , I wonder ? '' mused the Carrier , pacing to and fro . He scouted , from his heart , the insinuations of the toy merchant , and yet they filled him with a vague , indefinite uneasiness . For Tackleton was quick and sly ; and he had that painful sense , himself , of being a man of slow perception , that a broken hint was always worrying to him . He certainly had no intention in his mind of linking anything that Tackleton had said with the unusual conduct of his wife , but the two subjects of reflection came into his mind together , and he could not keep them asunder .
The bed was soon made ready ; and the visitor , declining all refreshment but a cup XXXXX tea , retired .
For after as by from in of over that with