"_Big_ hole!" she said defensively, with a gulped-down sob, and began smoothing it down, where she sat on the grass. "Angela, Angela! Oh, Angela, is my baby hurt?" cried Phyllis, flying in from the garden path outside. She had heard the child cry, from where she and Allan were in the living-room, and with a mother's instinct had fled out and down to where the child was. Allan was hurrying behind her, but before he could catch her she had caught her foot on the root that stood out of the ground in a loop, and fallen headlong, striking her head on the edge of the marble basin. She lay, white and still, where she had fallen. Allan was at her side in a moment, begging her to speak to him. "Is she dead, John?" he demanded passionately of John, kneeling beside her. "Good God, man, can't you speak--is she dead?" "She's stunned," John answered. "I think that's all." "Her heart is beating," said her husband, with his hand on it. "I--I think it is. Oh, Phyllis, darling, won't you speak to me?" Joy put her hand quietly on his shoulder. "Allan," she said, "John can't do anything as long as you won't let him get near Phyllis. He can help quicker than you can." Allan shivered a little, then raised Phyllis so that her head rested on his knee, and John could get at her. "Do something quickly, John," he said. "I shall go crazy if she lies that way much longer. It's the first time I ever asked her for anything that she didn't give it to me--" his throat caught. "She'll be all right in a minute, old fellow. Don't take it that way," John reassured him. "Joy, dear, run to the house and get some brandy and spirits of ammonia, and a spoon. Hurry." Joy sped back to the house, and got the things from Lily-Anna, who unlocked and found with quick, capable hands, though she was evidently trying not to cry as she did it. "Jus' a natural-born angel," she said. "Here, hurry back, Miss Joy. Yas, that kind's too good to live. I might a' knowed it long ago. There's everything, child. Now go on!" It had seemed forever to Joy, but John assured her that she had been very swift. They forced a little of the stimulant through Phyllis' teeth, and presently her color began to come back. "There, she's coming round, Allan," said John. "You see there was no need to be so worried." "It wasn't you," said Allan briefly, then straightway forgot everything else, as Phyllis' eyes opened. "I'm dizzy," she said faintly. Then she saw Allan's face over hers, and farther away the others, grave and anxious, and she smiled. "Why, Allan, you poor boy, I've worried you to death. I'm--sorry--dear." Her breath came a little hard for a moment, for it had been a bad fall; but she was nearly all right again in a few minutes more, and laughing. "Allan, if you don't stop looking as if the world had come to an end, I shall faint again, whether I want to or not," she said. "You foolish man, didn't you ever see anything like that before?"