The trouble of this first meeting being over, some more quiet conversation ensued; and, although almost too ill and weak to be allowed to talk, Colin persisted in stating briefly to the horror-stricken Fanny the kind of reception he had met with on his arrival, his treatment afterwards, the taking of his letter from him, and the brutal conduct which had caused his present illness. The girl stood silent, merely because she knew not what to think, what to believe, what to doubt; and was besides utterly lost for words to express properly her strangely mingled thoughts. It was almost impossible--incredible! Why could they do it? There was no cause for it--there _could_ be no cause for it. Human nature, and especially human nature in the shape of woman, was incapable of anything so infamous. Yet Colin was sensible--he had told an intelligible tale; and, most true of all, there he lay, a mere vision of what he was so brief a time ago,--a warranty plain and palpable that grievous wrong had been endured. Her brain was absolutely bewildered--she looked like one hovering on the doubtful boundary between sense and insanity. She cast her eyes around for surety--on the bed--at _him_, A burst of tears, as of a spring that for the first time breaks its bounds, succeeded,--and then another and another, as she fell on her knees and buried her face in the clothes that covered him. By and by, the doctor and Miss Sowersoft were present in the room with her. Fanny raised her head and beheld Colin's mistress attempting, in the presence of the doctor, to do the attentive, by adjusting the sheet about the boy's neck to keep off the external air. “Do not touch him!” exclaimed Fanny, springing to her feet; “he shall have nothing from your hands!” “Ay!” cried the doctor: “young woman, what now, what now?” “What now? Sir, you may well say _what now!_ I have heard all about it--Colin has told me all. Miss Sowersoft has nearly killed him, and now wants to show, because _you_ are here, how kind and good she is!” So saying, Fanny resolutely set about making the arrangement which Miss Sowersoft had contemplated with her own hands. “Why--what--who is this young woman?” asked the doctor, somewhat astonished at the unexpected scene which had just passed before him. “Nobody!” replied Miss Sowersoft; “she is only Mrs. Clink's servant, and a pert impudent hussy, too, as you have heard.” At the same time she looked in the doctor's face, and endeavoured to smile contemptuously, though it “came off” in such a manner as would inevitably have frightened anybody less accustomed than was Dr. Rowel to witness the agonies of the human countenance. “Yes, sir,” added Fanny, “I am only a servant; but I am a _woman_, whether servant or mistress. I nursed this lad when I was but six years old myself, and have taken care of him ever since. She shall not drown him, though she thinks she will!” “_Me_ drown him!” exclaimed Miss Sowersoft in feigned amazement.