"Can't you take me away somewhere? You know I can't move. If I have to stay here much longer I--I shall make a fool of myself." The doctor and Nannie paid her no heed. Side by side they were stooping together over the silent figure. After affording them what she deemed a more than sufficient opportunity to answer, she appealed to them again. "Can't you hear me? Take me away somewhere--I don't care where! I'll go mad if you don't." The doctor did not answer her directly; he spoke to Nannie. "Do as she bids you; take her away." "Where'll I take her?" the woman asked. "Take her and put her to bed in the best bedroom. Remember that she's now the mistress of this house." Nannie moved towards Isabel. For a woman, she was tall and brawny, but she was probably well past fifty, and Isabel certainly had not credited her with the capacity to do what she immediately did. She eyed the stranger for a moment in silence, then she asked, in the broadest Scotch:-- "Can't you walk by your own self?" Isabel resented both the tone and the scrutiny. "You know I can't." Without more ado the woman, stooping, put her arms about her and lifted her bodily from the chair as if she were some great child. Isabel was taken by surprise, and a little alarmed. "You'll drop me!" she cried. "I'll not drop you; you're nothing of a weight." As if to prove it, the old woman bore her from the room, across the landing, to another room on the other side, one which was in darkness. But Nannie seemed to know its geography by instinct. She deposited her burden on what Isabel realised was a bed. Striking a match on a box which she took from her pocket, she lit some candles which stood on the mantelshelf. Isabel, remaining where she had been placed, eyed her as she moved about. "You're very strong." "I'm not so strong as once I was. There was a time when I'd have carried four of you, and thought nothing of it either. Now can you undress yourself, or will you be needing me to do it for you?" "Thank you, I think I can undress myself; but if you would help me take the boot off my bad foot."