The servants went feebly off to their domain; one was sent to sweep the piazza, for the rain had beaten in such torrents upon it that it was impossible to walk there, till it should be brushed away.

Wrapped in their shawls, Henrietta and Charlotte Benson walked up and down the space that the servant swept, and watched and listened for a long half-hour.

I took a cloak from the rack and, leaning against the door-post, stood and listened silently.
From the direction of the river there was nothing to be heard.

There was still distant thunder, but that was the only sound, that and the dripping of the rain off the leaves of the drenched trees.

The wind was almost silent, and in the spaces of the broken clouds there were occasional faint stars.