Isaac looked stupefied, but Will Saunders pulled him away. Humphrey had work to do elsewhere, which could not be longer delayed: so Saunders remained behind, doing his best to cheer the old man, and receiving small response for his pains. Isaac sat dolefully in silence, with staring eyes and dropping jaw, lost in a remembrance of Mrs. Roper's last words. When Mrs. Roper at length came into the room, Saunders thoughtfully retired into the passage, leaving the two alone together. He was the chief carpenter in Banks, young still, and a remarkably thoughtful and obliging man in his ways. "Daisy is in bed," Mrs. Roper said, standing in front of old Isaac; and he stood up slowly, waiting to hear what she would say. "We have put her to bed, and I do not think she has been quite unconscious all the time, though she does not open her eyes yet. But I have come now to ask you about a nurse. I will watch by her till some one can come. That is all I can do, I fear, and she will need good nursing, poor child. You must hire somebody, Mr. Meads." Isaac's face grew longer and longer. "Doctor and nurse!" he ejaculated. "And how ever in the world am I to pay for doctor and nurse, I'd like to know! It'll be ruin—stark ruin!" "Come, come,—you and I know better, Mr. Meads," Mrs. Roper said significantly, for she happened to be more intimately acquainted with the condition of Isaac Meads' affairs than perhaps anybody else in Banks. "No danger of ruin at present. Of course you must have doctor and nurse, and of course you must pay for them too. Why, you would not wish Daisy to die for want of proper care, would you,—your own little Daisy! We sent off John Davis to the hospital, for there was nothing else to be done in his case; but everybody felt sure that you in your position wouldn't and couldn't want your dear little Daisy to go to the hospital—couldn't want it, Mr. Meads. All Banks would have cried shame upon the notion; and you would be shocked at it yourself as much as anybody,—would you not?" Isaac certainly did look shocked, but whether at the idea of Little Sutton hospital for Daisy was another matter. "Nurse!—and doctor!—and medicine!" he murmured. "It'll be stark ruin. And all of 'em free in the hospital." Mrs. Roper drew a step nearer. "Don't talk about the hospital for Daisy," she said in a low voice. "If you do not wish to be despised by everybody in the place, don't let Saunders or any one hear a whisper of it. There are so many who love Daisy. And it is not a right thought. You know that the hospital is meant for those who are poor,—and, Mr. Meads, you know you are not poor." Isaac quailed before the lady's bright keen gaze, and he shivered all over. "Who says so?" he asked entreatingly. "I haven't got one penny to spare,—not one penny."