Smiling and peaceful and happy lay Aunty Nan , for she had fallen on the sleep that knows no earthy wakening , while little Joscelyn sang . V . The Winning of Lucinda The marriage of a Penhallow was always the signal for a gathering of the Penhallows . From the uttermost parts of the earth they would come -- Penhallows by birth , and Penhallows by marriage and Penhallows by ancestry . East Grafton was the ancient habitat of the race , and Penhallow Grange , where `` old '' John Penhallow lived , was a Mecca to them . As for the family itself , the exact kinship of all its various branches and ramifications was a hard thing to define . Old Uncle Julius Penhallow was looked upon as a veritable wonder because he carried it all in his head and could tell on sight just what relation any one Penhallow was to any other Penhallow . The rest made a blind guess at it , for the most part , and the younger Penhallows let it go at loose cousinship . In this instance it was Alice Penhallow , daughter of `` young '' John Penhallow , who was to be married . Alice was a nice girl , but she and her wedding only pertain to this story in so far as they furnish a background for Lucinda ; hence nothing more need be said of her . On the afternoon of her wedding day -- the Penhallows held to the good , old-fashioned custom of evening weddings with a rousing dance afterwards -- Penhallow Grange was filled to overflowing with guests who had come there to have tea and rest themselves before going down to `` young '' John 's . Many of them had driven fifty miles . In the big autumnal orchard the younger fry foregathered and chatted and coquetted . Up-stairs , in `` old '' Mrs. John 's bedroom , she and her married daughters held high conclave . `` Old '' John had established himself with his sons and sons-in-law in the parlour , and the three daughters-in-law were making themselves at home in the blue sitting-room , ear-deep in harmless family gossip . Lucinda and Romney Penhallow were also there . Thin Mrs. Nathaniel Penhallow sat in a rocking chair and toasted her toes at the grate , for the brilliant autumn afternoon was slightly chilly and Lucinda , as usual , had the window open . She and plump Mrs. Frederick Penhallow did most of the talking . Mrs. George Penhallow being rather out of it by reason of her newness . She was George Penhallow 's second wife , married only a year .
Hence , her contributions to the conversation were rather spasmodic , hurled in , as it were , by dead reckoning , being sometimes appropriate and sometimes savouring XXXXX a point of view not strictly Penhallowesque .
as at by for in of on to while with