JASPER stood on the staircase waiting. Then he heard a step descend. There was no light: the maids, in the excitement and confusion, had forgotten their duties. No lamp on the staircase, none in the hall. Only in the latter the dull glimmer of the horn lantern that irradiated but did not illumine the faces of two who were dead. The oak door at the foot of the stairs was ajar, and a feeble light from this lantern penetrated to the staircase. The window admitted some greyness from the overcast sky. ‘Tell me, Barbara,’ he said, ‘what is the doctor’s report?’ ‘Jasper!’ Then Barbara’s strength gave way, and she burst into a flood of tears. He put his arm round her, and she rested her head on his breast and cried herself out. She needed this relief. She had kept control over herself by the strength of her will. There was no one in the house to think for her, to arrange anything; she had the care of everything on her, beside her great sorrow for her father, and fear for Eve. As for the servant girls, they were more trouble than help. _Men_ were in the kitchen; that sufficed to turn their heads and make them leave undone all they ought to have done, and do just those things they ought not to do. At this moment, after the strain, the presence of a sympathetic heart opened the fountain of her tears and broke down her self-restraint. Jasper did not interrupt her, though he was anxious to know the result of Mr. Coyshe’s examination. He waited patiently, with the weeping girl in his arms, till she looked up and said, ‘Thank you, dear friend, for letting me cry here: it has done me good.’ ‘Now, Barbara, tell me all.’ ‘Jasper, the doctor says that Eve will live.’ ‘God’s name be praised for that!’ ‘But he says that she will be nothing but a poor cripple all her days.’ ‘Then we must take care of her.’ ‘Yes, Jasper, I will devote my life to her.’ ‘_We_ will, Barbara.’ She took his hand and pressed it between both hers. ‘But,’ she said hesitatingly, ‘what if Mr. Coyshe——’ She did not finish the sentence. ‘Wait till Mr. Coyshe claims her.’ ‘He is engaged to her, so of course he will, the more readily now that she is such a poor crushed worm.’ Jasper said nothing. He knew Mr. Coyshe better than Barbara, perhaps. He had taken his measure when he went with him over the farm after the signing of the will. ‘This place is hers by her father’s will,’ said Jasper; ‘and, should the surgeon draw back, she will need you and me to look after her interests.’ ‘Yes,’ said Barbara, ‘she will need us both.’ Then she withdrew her hands and returned upstairs. A few days later Mr. Coyshe took occasion to clear the ground. He explained to Barbara that his engagement must be considered at an end. He was very sorry, but he must look out for his own interests, as he had neither parent alive to look out for them for him. It would be quite impossible for him to get on with a wife who was a cripple.