There was a little valance, about a foot deep, round the top of the
child's bed, and this descended within some ten or twelve inches of the
pillow on which it lay.
They observed that the little creature was quieter whenever they took it
up and held it on their laps. They had just replaced him, as he seemed
to have grown quite sleepy and tranquil, but he was not five minutes in
his bed when he began to scream in one of his frenzies of terror; at the
same moment the nurse, for the first time, detected, and Mrs. Prosser
equally plainly saw, following the direction of _her_ eyes, the real
cause of the child's sufferings.
Protruding through the aperture of the press, and shrouded in the shade
of the valance, they plainly saw the white fat hand, palm downwards,
presented towards the head of the child. The mother uttered a scream,
and snatched the child from its little bed, and she and the nurse ran
down to the lady's sleeping-room, where Mr. Prosser was in bed, shutting
the door as they entered; and they had hardly done so, when a gentle tap
came to it from the outside.
There is a great deal more, but this will suffice.
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