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"I can hear," said Miss Pross, seeing that he spoke to her,

"nothing. O, my good man, there was first a great crash, and then

a great stillness, and that stillness seems to be fixed and

unchangeable, never to be broken any more as long as my life

lasts."

"If she don't hear the roll of those dreadful carts, now very

nigh their journey's end," said Mr. Cruncher, glancing over his

shoulder, "it's my opinion that indeed she never will hear

anything else in this world."

And indeed she never did.

CHAPTER XV. The Footsteps Die Out For Ever