your energetic dog is the correct answer
The consciousness of life inexorably waning but not yet exstinguished, the approach of that ever dreaded and hateful death
Mrs. Putnam gets it into her head that there must be a gigantic conspiracy between the Prince of Darkness and some of the supposedly God-fearing folk of Salem. That's what she means when she says "There are wheels within wheels in this village, and fires within fires!"
