"Oh, no--no need of it," said the doctor. "He will probably sleep far better if he is left alone. Let him have a hand-bell within reach, and some one near enough to hear if he rings;" whereupon my own maid, who had been dying to be of use, came forward to suggest that she should sleep in a small dressing-room next door, and where she would hear the slightest sound. This was agreed to, then followed repeated directions from the doctor as to liniments and bandages, and then at last I gave in to Mrs Bence's reiterated entreaties that I would come downstairs and have a bit of dinner--Moore joining his voice to hers, and promising to eat something himself, though he owned that he was not feeling "exactly hungry." I was terribly tired if not hungry, and I felt grateful for the unusual tact which made Sims and his underlings leave me alone once the good man had satisfied himself that everything I was in want of was within reach. I had plenty to think of; not a little to blame myself for, though farther back than the actual events of this strange evening; still more to be very thankful about--how easily my young brother might have been, if not killed, at least terribly injured, crippled perhaps for life, by no greater an accident! And the thought brought back to my mind again the mystery of the Grim House, made more real, more impressive, so to say, by the further glimpse I had had of its melancholy occupants. In spite of myself and my determination to oust all curiosity concerning them from my mind, the picture of the quartette, at that very moment sitting, probably in silence, around their dining-table, would force itself on to my brain. Could the mysterious secret have had to do with the accident which crippled the younger brother? No; somehow I felt sure it had not been that. The sisters, I remembered Isabel telling me, had referred to it quite simply on the one occasion when they had emerged to offer sympathy at the vicarage. No, the mystery did not lie in that direction. Then the words I had unwillingly overheard recurred to my memory. I had thought I would try to forget them, but this was beyond my power, and next best to doing so, an instinct seemed to tell me, was to remember them accurately; and this, for I had a retentive brain, I found I could easily do. The mention of our own surname had naturally impressed them much more vividly on me. "Ernest Fitzmaurice"--who could he be? I had never heard of him, I felt sure. Yet our name was not a commonplace one, and the great Irish family to which we belonged were very clannish, and kept up their knowledge of each other with considerable energy; my father did so, I well knew; some day perhaps I might ask him if he knew of any relative whose first name was Ernest.