Such an accident could not occur without the news spreading pretty quickly; and in the course of the morning several of the neighbours drove over to make inquiries, the trouble having been so far magnified that, as it travelled in different directions, the number of drowned had varied from one to half-a-dozen; the most sensational report having it that the pleasure-boat had been sunk as well, and that men were busy at work trying to recover it up by the weir. The groom had returned; the patient had partaken of his sedative draught and sunk into a heavy sleep, watched by his wife; while the doctor had gone to lie down for a few hours' rest, for, as he said, the excitement was at an end, and all that was needful now was plenty of sleep. Arthur Prayle had betaken himself to the garden, where he read, moralised, and watched John Monnick, who in his turn dug, moralised, and watched the visitor from beneath his overhanging brows. Aunt Sophia and Naomi were in the drawing-room reading and answering letters; the former doing the reading, the latter the answering from dictation; for there was a cessation from the visiting that had gone on all the morning. "Now I do hope they will leave us at peace," said Aunt Sophia. "Talk, talk, talk, and always in the same strain. I do hate country visiting-calls; and I will not have my correspondence get behind.--Now then, my dear, where were we?" "East Boodle silver-lead mines," said Naomi. "Ah, of course. Expect to pay a dividend of twelve and a half per cent?" "Yes, aunt dear," said the girl, referring to a prospectus. "Humph! That's very different from consols. I think I shall have some of those shares, Naomi." "Do you, aunt?" "Do I, child? Why, of course. It's like throwing money in the gutter, to be content with three per cent, when you can have twelve and a half. Write and tell Mr Saxby to buy me fifty shares." "Yes, aunt dear. But do you think it would be safe?" "Safe, child? Yes, of course. You read what all those captains said-- Captain Pengummon and Captain Trehum and Captain Polwhiddle." "But Mr Saxby said, aunt, that some of these Cornish mines were very risky speculations; don't you remember?" "No, my dear; I don't. I wonder that I remember anything, after yesterday's shock." "But I remember, aunt dear," said the girl. "He said that if these mines would pay such enormous dividends, was it likely that the shares would go begging, and the owners be obliged to advertise to get them taken up." "Yes; and Captain Polwhiddle in his printed Report says that there is a lode of unexampled richness not yet tapped; though one would think the silver-lead was in a melted state, for them to have to tap it." "Yes, aunt dear; but Mr Saxby said that these people always have a bit of rich ore on purpose to make a show."