contact with the furniture, like some one groping in the dark: and suddenly that dreadful something moved close to her, between her and the window, touching the line of her bed. It wavered, seemed to pass, then turned back. The miserable child did not breathe, kept still with one last effort, turned to stone by delirious fear. But something, the subtle consciousness that breathes from every living creature, betrayed her in the portentous gloom. Suddenly she felt something; a hand--was it a hand?--passed over her face; and then the thing, which was not distinct enough to be called a shadow, dropped by her bedside, and drew close--close with the breath of another human creature, upon her. “My child, my little darling, my little darling! I’ve found you, I’ve found you at last!” The breath, the voice, the touch of the cold hand, turned Hetty’s brain. And then it was that those shrieks arose, the indescribable, toneless, sharp discords, the cry of mortal terror passed into delirium; and she knew no more. “She is not dead,” said Mr. Darrell, examining with the candle the horrible, fixed, staring eyes that saw nothing, that were unconscious of his examination and undazzled by the light. “She is not dead. I am not sure that she isn’t worse than dead.” “How did it happen?” said the housekeeper, in quick, low tones. “How can I tell you?--negligence! Get hot water, hot irons--anything that is handiest. We must bring back the circulation, if that is possible. Oh, thank you!” The young doctor threw a vague glance at the white figure that suddenly appeared from behind the curtains, and got into the bed beside Hetty’s marble form. He did not recognise who it was. “That’s the best thing you can do; rub her feet, get the blood back anyhow--anyhow. Get hot water, some of you, quick! Go on with that while I go and get something for her.” The housekeeper laid her hand upon him as he was hurrying away. “Is all safe?” she asked in her low, quick voice. “Are you sure all’s safe?” “Yes, yes,” he said impatiently; “what’s that in comparison with this?” “It’s our first business all the same,” said the woman. The young doctor made a despairing movement of his hand towards the bed and hurried away.