Page:The Cottagers of Glenburnie - Hamilton (1808).djvu/208

 The young men, in no hurry to obey their father's summons, were still in bed. On passing through the dark passage where they slept, she could not help wondering at the perverted ingenuity, which could contrive to give to the sleeping rooms of a country house, all the disadvantages which attend the airless abodes of poverty in the crowded lanes of great and populous cities.

From the length of time the outer door had been shut, the closeness of the house had become very unpleasant to her lungs. Welcome therefore was the reviving breeze of morning! Welcome the freshness of the coming day, which now burst upon the senses. It was not, indeed, until she had removed some paces from the house, that she fully felt its influence; for while near the door, the smell of the squashy pool, and its neighbour, the dunghill, were so powerful, as to subdue the fragrance of earth's fruits and flowers.