‘Let me carry him, with one of the maids,’ said Jasper. ‘No,’ answered Barbara. ‘You shall take his shoulders, I his feet. We will carry him on a mattress. Cook and Jane have brought one. Help me to raise him on to it.’ Jasper was the man she wanted. He did not lose his head. He did not ask questions, how the accident had happened; he did not waste words in useless lamentation. He sent a maid at once to the stable to saddle the horse. A girl, in the country, can saddle and bridle as well as a boy. ‘I am off for the doctor,’ he said shortly, as soon as he had seen Mr. Jordan removed to the same downstairs room in which he had so recently lain himself. ‘Send for the lawyer,’ said Mr. Jordan, who had lain with his eyes shut. ‘The lawyer, papa!’ ‘I must make my will. I might die, and then what would become of Eve?’ ‘Ride on to Tavistock after you have summoned Mr. Coyshe,’ said Barbara. When Jasper was gone, Eve, who had been fluttering about the door, came in, and threw herself sobbing on her knees by her father’s bed. He put out his hand, stroked her brow, and called her tender names. She was in great distress, reproaching herself for having asked him to mow the grass for her; she charged herself with having wounded him. ‘No—no, Eve!’ said her father. ‘It was not your fault. Barbara would not let me alone. She interfered, and I lost my balance.’ ‘I am so glad it was not I,’ sobbed Eve. ‘Let me look at you. Stand up,’ he said. She rose, but averted her face somewhat, so as not to see the blood on the sheet. He had been caressing her. Now, as he looked at her, he saw a red streak across her forehead. ‘My child! what is that? You are hurt! Barbara, help! She is bleeding.’ Barbara looked. ‘It is nothing,’ she said; ‘your hand, papa, has left some of its stains on her brow. Come with me, Eve, and I will wash it clean.’ The colour died completely out of Eve’s face, and she seemed again about to faint. Barbara hastily bathed a napkin in fresh water, and removed all traces of blood from her forehead, and then kissed it. ‘Is it gone?’ whispered Eve. ‘Entirely.’ ‘I feel it still. I cannot remain here.’ Then the young girl crept out of the room, hardly able to sustain herself on her feet. When Barbara was alone with her father, she said to him, in her quiet, composed tones, ‘Papa, though I do not in the least think this wound will prove fatal, I am glad you have sent for Lawyer Knighton, because you ought to make your will, and provide for Eve. I made up my mind to speak to you when I was on my way home from Ashburton.’ ‘Well, what have you to say?’