“Hush, Hannah! Hush! my dear!” said Von Steinberg, quickly, noting the bewildered look of the nurse at hearing a Marchioness talk in so uneducated a manner, “you shall hear everything when you are a little stronger! Yes! you have met with a bad accident, my dear, and I am afraid you will have to remain quiet for a few days, but you will get all right, if you will be patient. Here is your nurse, who will pay you every attention, and make you well as soon as she can, and I am here, too, to look after you!” Hannah regarded him with the limp, stolid expression which he remembered so well of old, as if she were trying to follow the sense of what he said to her, without the capability of doing so. “But where’s the Professor--my ’usband, you know! I wants to see ’im, ’e may be vexed ’cos I said I would get ’im a nice little supper--tasty, what he likes--and if I don’t get back in time, he won’t ’ave none.” “Hannah! Ricardo cannot come to you just now! You must believe what I tell you! Nurse! have you any beef-tea ready? Give her a teaspoonful with a little brandy in it. She is growing faint.” “O! I haches all hover!” groaned poor Hannah, as the weak tears oozed from her eyes with the pain she was enduring, “I shan’t be able to get the Professor’s meals, not for days and days, and ’e _will_ be sorry when ’e ears I’m in the horspital. Was I run over, Doctor? I feels like it! just as if a great cart wheel ’ad gone right hover me, and crushed all my bones! O! it’s hagony!” “I know it must be, poor child, but we are doing all we can to relieve you! Here! drink this!” said Von Steinberg, as he held the broth, into which he had dropped some sedative, to her lips, and stood by her, until she had dropped off into a moaning slumber. In the morning, after the surgeon’s examination, the Baron anticipated his dictum. “You need not attempt to buoy me up with false hopes,” he said, “for I can see the truth for myself. She will not get over it!” “I fear not! She has a wonderful constitution--the strength of a lion--but there are internal injuries, and mortification has commenced, and a few hours (say twenty-four), must see it terminated. I cannot give you any hope!” “Thank you for being candid! It is best to know the worst at once! I suppose we may give her anything she can take!” “Just so, but I should advise the use of soporifics if great pain comes on, as it must, I fear, do!” The men shook hands, and the Baron returned to Hannah’s side. At all events, he thought, she should not accuse him of inattention now. He found her again awake and restless, with bright feverish eyes and an anxious look on her features. “Doctor!” she gasped, as soon as he appeared, “I shan’t get over this--I feel it! There’s a great fire inside of me, and my ’ead keeps going round. I’ve got my death some’ow, I know. And I must see my pore mother afore I dies!” “Your _mother_, Hannah!” cried Von Steinberg, aghast.