"If you will go downstairs," said Caroline, quietly and gently, "I will bring the children down. I don't think they will wake. Make the bed ready and turn the lights low. I think we will put them into the blankets, they will not feel the cold that way." At first she had been on the point of suggesting that Camilla should stay in the nursery and take her bed, but she quickly felt that it would be a wise thing to occupy the other woman a little, for even to her untutored eye there were unmistakable signs of acute and dangerous mental tension about Camilla at this moment. "If you will go and make everything ready and come up again, you might carry Baby down," she whispered. It made her heart ache sharply to see the pitiful eagerness with which Camilla did her bidding. When the mother came back again she had divested herself of her silk underskirt, so that there should be as little noise as possible. "Give me Betty," she whispered; then she pushed Caroline gently on one side. "I can lift her myself," she said, "I have done it before." She almost staggered under the burden of the sleeping child as she took it out of the bed; but the colour came back to her face, and her eyes lost that wild look as she held Betty to her heart. Caroline tucked a cot blanket securely about the little feet, and went down closely behind. "Now I will bring Baby," she whispered. Both journeys were accomplished satisfactorily; neither child woke, though Baby for a moment opened her sleepy eyes as though she would have questioned what was passing with her. When they were both laid in Camilla's luxurious bed (and by the sound of their breathing the two listeners had assured themselves that the rest was unbroken) the mother went up to Caroline and kissed her, and then she put her arms round the girl and clung to her. "Don't think me mad," she said hoarsely; "to-morrow I will tell you all." "You are so cold," said Caroline, unevenly; "won't you have something? Let me get you a little brandy?" "It is you who ought to be cold," said Camilla; "how selfish I am, dragging you out of your bed like this." They spoke in hushed tones. "I am not a bit cold," Caroline said. Indeed, she had found time to slip on something about her shoulders, though her feet were bare. She insisted upon putting Mrs. Lancing in the chair in front of the fire, and then she went down to the dining-room and brought back a little brandy. Camilla thanked her with a wan smile, and urged the girl a second time to go back to her bed. But Caroline would not leave her at once. She was a little alarmed at Mrs. Lancing's look, and she knelt down, chafing first the cold, slender hands, and then the small, cold feet. "It is a long time since I carried Betty," Camilla said after a little while. "Dear heart, she has grown so much she is no longer a baby, alas! alas!"