At this point Sarah broke into noisy weeping and David arrived. When he had bound up the hand, consoled the trembling Sarah, and suggested that she should have a cup of tea, he inquired where Elizabeth was. She might be at Mrs. Mottisfont’s, suggested Mrs. Havergill, as she followed him into the hall. “You’re not thinking of sending Sarah to the ’orspital, are you sir?” “No, of course not, she’ll be all right in a day or two. I’ll just walk up the hill and meet Mrs. Blake.” “I’m sure it’s a mercy she were out,” said Mrs. Havergill. “Why?” said David, turning at the door. Mrs. Havergill assumed an air of matronly importance. “It might ha’ given her a turn,” she said, “for the pore girl did scream something dreadful. I’m sure it give me a turn, but that’s neither here nor there. What I was thinking of was Mrs. Blake’s condition, sir.” Mrs. Havergill was obviously a little nettled at David’s expression. “Nonsense,” said David quickly. Mrs. Havergill went back to Sarah. “‘Nonsense,’ he says, and him a doctor. Why, there was me own pore mother as died with her ninth, and all along of a turn she got through seeing a child run over. And he says, ‘Nonsense.’” David walked up the hill in a state of mind between impatience and amusement. How women’s minds did run on babies. He supposed it was natural, but there were times when one could dispense with it. He found Mary at home and alone. “Elizabeth? Oh, no, she hasn’t been near me for days,” said Mary. “As it happened, I particularly _wanted_ to see her. But she hasn’t been near me.” She considered that Elizabeth was neglecting her. Only that morning she had told Edward so. “She doesn’t come to see me _on purpose_,” she had said. “But I know quite well why. I don’t at all approve of the way she’s going on, and she knows it. I don’t think it’s _right_. I think some one ought to tell David. No, Edward, I really do. I don’t understand Elizabeth at all, and she’s simply afraid to come and see me because she knows that I shall speak my mind.” Now, as she sat and talked to David, the idea that it might be her duty to enlighten him presented itself to her mind afresh. A sudden and brilliant idea came into her head, and she immediately proceeded to act upon it. “I had a special reason for wanting to see her,” she said. “I had a lovely box of things down from town on approval, and I wanted her to see them.” “Things?” said David. “Oh, clothes,” said Mary, with a wave of the hand. “You know they’ll send you anything now. By the way, I bought a present for Liz, though she doesn’t _deserve_ it. Will you take it down to her? I’ll get it if you don’t mind waiting a minute.” She was away for five minutes, and then returned with a small brown-paper parcel in her hand. “You can open it when you get home,” she said. “Open it and show it to Liz, and see whether you like it. Tell her I sent it with my _love_.” “Now there won’t be any more nonsense,” she told Edward.