midday
`` Only the marks of gunpowder , '' said Grisell . `` Listen , I will tell thee what befell me . '' Gunpowder seemed to be quite beyond all experience of Whitburn nature , but the history of the catastrophe gained attention , and the girl 's terror abated , so that Grisell could ask her name , which was Thora , and learning , too , that she had led a hard life since her granny died , and her uncle 's wife beat her , and made her carry heavy loads of seaweed when it froze her hands , besides a hundred other troubles . As to knowing any kind of feminine art , she was as ignorant as if the rough and extremely dirty woollen garment she wore , belted round with a strip of leather , had grown upon her , and though Grisell 's own stock of garments was not extensive , she was obliged , for very shame , to dress this strange attendant in what she could best spare , as well as , in spite of sobs and screams , to wash her face , hands , and feet , and it was wonderful how great a difference this made in the wild creature by the time the clang of the castle bell summoned all to the midday meal , when as before , Bernard professed not to be able to look at his sister , but when she had retreated he was seen spying at her through his fingers , with great curiosity . Afterwards she went up to her mother to beg for a few necessaries for herself and for her maid , and to offer to do some spinning . She was not very graciously answered ; but she was allowed an old frayed horse-cloth on which Thora might sleep , and for the rest she might see what she could find under the stairs in the turret , or in the chest in the hall window . The broken , dilapidated fragments which seemed to Grisell mere rubbish were treasures and wonders to Thora , and out of them she picked enough to render her dreary chamber a very few degrees more habitable .