In vain Mrs. Holl endeavoured to calm the lad; his wild excitement, his grief, and his sense of helplessness, turned his brain; hour after hour he raved, and before night was in a state of raging fever. Mrs. Holl sent a neighbour off for a doctor, who ordered his hair to be cut off, and ice to be placed on his temples, but for the next few days his life was despaired of, and John was obliged to stay at home to assist Sarah with the delirious lad, and enable her to slip away for half an hour three times a day to the broken-hearted old man in New Street. CHAPTER X. WHO WAS IT? THE shop in New Street is shut up, and has been so for the last ten days. Two days after Carry's disappearance, an enterprising young rival a few doors off made an arrangement through Mrs. Holl with Stephen Walker, to take the business off his hands, and to supply his customers with newspapers. There was an hour's bustle as the books and stock were taken across the road in a hand cart, and then the shutters were put up, a notice affixed stating that the business was transferred to No. 27 over the way, and Stephen Walker remained alone by his deserted hearth. Great was the excitement and talk in New Street upon those first few days. Not a little was the matter discussed upon the top of the Brompton 'busses by the young clerks who had so long bought their morning papers and tobacco at the shop of Stephen Walker, when they first heard of the reason of its sudden closing, at the new establishment at No. 27. For a few days indeed the matter was talked over almost to the exclusion of every other topic. Men's comments upon an affair of this sort are very different from those of women. Women discuss it quite theoretically. Comparatively few women ever are greatly tempted, and they can therefore neither understand nor make allowance for those who are so tried. Their blame thus falls almost wholly upon the woman. Upon her they are pitiless. She becomes as one who is dead, and her name is no more to be spoken by pure lips. To the man they are very lenient. There may be a little coolness, but it soon passes over, and in a short time they will again feast him at their tables, and offer him their lambs in marriage. Men, upon the other hand, reason from what they know. In these matters they live altogether in a different atmosphere to that which women inhabit. They can understand the old sad story of temptation and weakness, of loving trust, and broken promises, and their censure falls wholly upon the man. There was no word of blame for poor Carry on the lips of those by whom the matter was discussed upon the top of the Brompton 'busses. For her there was pity and even sorrow; while had his name been known, he would have fared but badly at the hands of more than one of the young fellows who had once hoped to win the pretty tobacconist's daughter for their wife.