"Oh, my poor child! Mr. Grey, you can't tell how I feel. I, who have been with her now more than six years, until I have grown to look upon her as a daughter. Oh, Mr. Grey, this is dreadful!" "There is nothing the matter with Miss Midharst, I trust. She is quite well?" "Quite well." "In health, I mean?" "Oh, yes. But think of her thrown out of her father's place without a home or a relative, and so young and so simple." "But, Mrs. Grant, Miss Midharst is enormously rich, and can make a most handsome home anywhere she pleases." "But think of an upstart younger son of a whole lot of no-good younger sons turning my darling out into the cold, bleak, cheerless world, turning her out of the house of her forefathers, this grand old place. I never knew how grand it was or how I had grown to love it until now." The poor woman, in her great sympathy for Maud, could not dissociate the ideas of leaving the home-tree and poverty. When her husband died, and the instable home-tree under which soldiers sling their hammocks had to be abandoned, there were narrow ways and the friendless world that wait on narrow ways to be encountered and endured. In her anxious sympathy she thought the heiress of a rich baronet would have the same hardship and privation to encounter as the widow of a penniless captain in a marching regiment. The banker placed his hand firmly, though lightly, on the shoulder of Mrs. Grant, and said, in an impressive voice: "We are all, I am sure, very sorry Sir Alexander is so ill; but we must not add to our grief for him the fear that Miss Midharst will be unprovided for. There will be few richer heiresses, and she and her fortune shall be well taken care of. I wish you would be kind enough to tell me what the doctors said about Sir Alexander." "Oh, Mr. Grey, I hope you will excuse me. I am so fearfully troubled and excited. I know what trouble is myself. I have had my own sad experience----" "And the doctors said, Mrs. Grant?" interrupted the banker gently. "Oh, Mr. Grey, I hope you will forgive me. They are in the banqueting-room, and said they would be glad to see you there." "Thank you; I will go to them instantly. Dear Mrs. Grant, do try and keep up your spirits, for Miss Midharst's sake." With these words he left, and walked quickly in the direction of the great room. As he did so, the river passenger steamboat _Rodwell_ went past on the outer or northern side, in front of the great archway leading to the courtyard of the Island Castle. Mr. Grey approached the dreary state dining-room, and having entered found the three doctors seated by the open narrow windows, and looking out upon the silent peaceful scene beneath. He approached them quietly, gravely. Dr. Hardy rose to receive him. The doctor and the banker bowed to one another; then Mr. Grey bowed to the other two doctors, and they returned his salutation with respectful inclinations of the head and in silence. The banker broke the silence: