'Oh, mamma, how you terrified me! I thought you were a man that

had got into the house.' 'Nonsense! The men are all gone away. There are soldiers all

round the place, seeking for their work now it is too late. Miss

Hale is lying on the dining-room sofa badly hurt. I am going for

the doctor.' 'Oh! don't, mamma! they'll murder you.' She clung to her mother's

gown. Mrs. Thornton wrenched it away with no gentle hand.

'Find me some one else to go but that girl must not bleed to

death.' 'Bleed! oh, how horrid! How has she got hurt?' 'I don't know,--I have no time to ask. Go down to her, Fanny, and

do try to make yourself of use. Jane is with her; and I trust it

looks worse than it is. Jane has refused to leave the house,

cowardly woman! And I won't put myself in the way of any more

refusals from my servants, so I am going myself.' 'Oh, dear, dear!' said Fanny, crying, and preparing to go down

rather than be left alone, with the thought of wounds and

bloodshed in the very house.

'Oh, Jane!' said she, creeping into the dining-room, 'what is the

matter? How white she looks! How did she get hurt? Did they throw

stones into the drawing-room?' Margaret did indeed look white and wan, although her senses were

beginning to return to her. But the sickly daze of the swoon made

her still miserably faint. She was conscious of movement around

her, and of refreshment from the eau de Cologne, and a craving

for the bathing to go on without intermission; but when they

stopped to talk, she could no more have opened her eyes, or

spoken to ask for more bathing, than the people who lie in

death-like trance can move, or utter sound, to arrest the awful

preparations for their burial, while they are yet fully aware,

not merely of the actions of those around them, but of the idea

that is the motive for such actions.

Jane paused in her bathing, to reply to Miss Thornton's question.

'She'd have been safe enough, miss, if she'd stayed in the

drawing-room, or come up to us; we were in the front garret, and

could see it all, out of harm's way.' 'Where was she, then?' said Fanny, drawing nearer by slow

degrees, as she became accustomed to the sight of Margaret's pale

face.

'Just before the front door--with master!' said Jane,

significantly.

'With John! with my brother! How did she get there?' 'Nay, miss, that's not for me to say,' answered Jane, with a

slight toss of her head. 'Sarah did'---'Sarah what?' said Fanny, with impatient curiosity.




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