Thus it chanced on that afternoon that Caroline's ears were three times tortured with the ringing of the bell and the advent of undesired guests; for Donne followed Malone, and Sweeting followed Donne; and more wine was ordered up from the cellar into the dining-room (for though old Helstone chid the inferior priesthood when he found them "carousing," as he called it, in their own tents, yet at his hierarchical table he ever liked to treat them to a glass of his best), and through the closed doors Caroline heard their boyish laughter, and the vacant cackle of their voices. 
Thus it chanced on that afternoon that Caroline's ears were three times tortured with the ringing of the bell; for Donne followed Malone, and Sweeting followed Donne. More wine was ordered up from the cellar; and through the closed doors Caroline heard their boyish laughter, and the vacant cackle of their voices. 