"Go and speak to him, Lucy. Here, your handkerchief first. That's right!" said Oldroyd sharply. "Now, the smallest pieces of the ice. That's right. Go and say--No change. Perhaps he'll sit down and wait." As he spoke, with Mrs Alleyne's help, he was busily arranging the smaller fragments from the pail of ice in a couple of handkerchiefs, and applying them to his patient's head. "There," he said, "that's better than all our fanning. Now, I hope to see some difference." The change was long in coming, Alleyne remaining perfectly insensible for hour after hour. Towards evening the principal physician of the neighbourhood arrived, and was for some time with the sick man, returning afterwards to where Mrs Alleyne, Lucy, Sir John, and the major were, waiting impatiently for news. He said he was not surprised at the seizure, upon learning the history of the case from his friend, Mr Oldroyd, upon whose treatment he could make no change whatever. "Then you think the worst!" cried Mrs Alleyne piteously. "Pardon me, my dear madam; not at all. There are cases that time alone can decide. The ailment has been growing for many months. Your son must have had premonitory warnings, attacks of faintness, and the like; for he had provided himself with a strong preparation of ammonia; but he has not been leading a life that would improve the general state of his health. Over-study and general mental anxiety have, no doubt, been the causes of this attack; and as it has taken months to reach this culmination, it will take a long time to bring him back to health." "Then you think there is no danger?" said Sir John eagerly. "I think there is great danger, Sir John; but I hope that we shall be able to successfully ward it off." Oldroyd and Mrs Alleyne resumed their places by the patient, the observatory being turned into a sick chamber, and mattresses and bedding were brought down; and there the astronomer lay, in the midst of the trophies of his study, his instruments and his piles of notes; the great grim tubes pointing through the opened shutters at the far-off worlds, towards which it almost seemed as if--weary with the struggle to reach them while chained to earth--he was about to wing his flight. Lucy came in on tiptoe to bend forward over her brother, but Oldroyd rose. "Go back, dear," he said, "and get some refreshment. It is time you dined." "Dined!--at a time like this!" she said reproachfully. "Yes; at a time like this. It will be a case of long nights of watching. He must not be left, and we must have strength to attend him through it all. Leave it to me, dear, and do as I wish." Lucy bent down and kissed his hand in token of obedience, and soon after joined Sir John and the major in the dining-room. "Can I do anything else now?" said Sir John; "if not, I'll go. I promised Glynne to go back with news as soon as there was any to carry. Are you coming, Jem?"