Even at that moment of danger Nora could not be sentimental, though she felt the force of the situation perhaps as much as if she had been praying to heaven to avert her doom. On flew the cobs through the village, though fortunately without running over anybody, and down a narrow lane, on the way to the Hall. There was a sharp curve about the middle of it. As Nora reached the point, someone--a woman--suddenly rose from the bank which skirted the road, and stood full in the way of the flying steeds, catching with her hand at the reins of Belle as she passed. Nora thought the horses were stopped, but the next moment they started off again; but the woman was not to be seen--she had fallen. ‘My God,’ thought Nora, ‘I have killed somebody. They have run over her.’ The arrest, however, slight as it was, had had its effect. Belle and Beau suddenly stood still as rocks, and Nora leapt at once from the cart and approached the stranger, who was just scrambling to her feet. ‘Oh, how good, how brave of you!’ she cried. ‘If you had not done that, they might have dashed the cart and me to pieces against the gate. But have you hurt yourself? Are you sure you are all right?’ ‘I think I am,’ replied the young woman, as she rose to her feet. ‘They only knocked me down; the wheels did not come near me.’ ‘Thank God for that!’ cried Nora earnestly. ‘I should never have forgiven myself if you had been hurt.’ She gazed at the face of the country girl in amazement, for she thought it was the most beautiful she had ever seen. And so it was they first met--Nell and Nora. END OF VOL. II. COLSTON AND COMPANY, PRINTERS, EDINBURGH. Transcriber’s Note: Words may have inconsistent hyphenation in the text. Jargon, dialect, obsolete and alternative spellings were left unchanged. Seven misspelled words were corrected. Words and phrases in italics are surrounded by underscores, _like this_. Obvious printing errors, such as partially printed letters and punctuation, were corrected. Final stops missing at the end of sentences and abbreviations were added.