Sarah Spencer was startled . She had never heard Naomi Holland groan since she had come to wait on her . `` Are you feeling any worse , Naomi ? Is the pain coming back ? '' `` No . Go and tell Car ` line to give Christopher some of that grape jelly on his bread before he goes to bed . She 'll find it in the cupboard under the stairs . '' Presently the house grew very still . Caroline had dropped asleep on the sitting-room lounge , across the hall . Sarah Spencer nodded over her knitting by the table in the sick room . She had told Eunice to go to bed , but the child refused . She still sat huddled up on the foot of the bed , watching her mother 's face intently . Naomi appeared to sleep . The candle burned long , and the wick was crowned by a little cap of fiery red that seemed to watch Eunice like some impish goblin . The wavering light cast grotesque shadows of Sarah Spencer 's head on the wall . The thin curtains at the window wavered to and fro , as if shaken by ghostly hands . At midnight Naomi Holland opened her eyes . The child she had never loved was the only one to go with her to the brink of the Unseen . `` Eunice -- remember ! '' It was the faintest whisper .
The soul , passing over the threshold of another life , strained back XXXXX its only earthly tie .
across at by in of on over since to under