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Show sounds in concert. Janni, well aware that her dissolute father was lying abed inside, hoped with goodly malice that the birds be sore annoying the man. Indeed, she had never despised this interloper as much as she despised him at that moment. Calling her lady Mother a ghoul! Of all things! A full stupid man. A full DragonGoose of a man! Then, of a sudden, Janni felt something come to her, an awareness that she'd felt once before. She knew without any doubt whatsoever that her father was lying in bed in the male sleeping room on the very point of...aye, on the very point of dying. Janni's face grew absolutely still, as though someone with a cloth had just wiped all expression from it. She waved to her friends to go on to the terrace on the other side of the Hall without her. And they ran off. Then Janni turned and walked toward the garden door and through it into the Hall, and down the main passage into the room where her father lay- Once there, she stood by his bedside and looked at the man lying there. He was still propped up, but his eyes were closed and his face was fair blue. Moreover... ...moreover, the FoxChuck had got something wrapped around his furry neck and little Janni-Ida's Heaven, she was but seven TwelveMonths old at the time!-little Janni strived mightily to get it off her little pet. But, marry, 'twas too l a t e . . . t oo late! The little animal gasped once, then gasped once more. The BauerBird in the cage beside Janni's head started a tentative song and that was when she did i t . . .. Janni could sense the electric feel of growing apprehension-'twas 228 |