he
heard her moan, and the soft thud of her little body on the thick carpet.
He guessed the truth and groped his way towards where the sound had been,
for he feared lest he might trample upon her in too great eagerness.
Kneeling by her he touched her little feet, and then felt his way to her
face. And as he did so, such is the double action of the mind, even in
the midst of his care the remembrance swept across his mind of how he had
once knelt in just such manner in an old church by another little
senseless form. In his confusion of mind he lost the direction of the
door, and coming to the window pushed forward the flapping blind and went
out on the balcony. He knew from the freshness of the air and the
distant sounds that he was in the open. This disturbed him, as he wished
to find someone who could attend to the fainting child. But as he had
lost the way back to the room now, he groped along the wall of the Castle
with one hand, whilst he held Pearl securely in the other. As he went he
called out for help.

When he came opposite the window of the Mandarin room Mrs. Stonehouse saw
him; she ran to him and caught Pearl in her arms. She was so agitated,
so lost in concern for the child that she never even thought to speak to
the man whom she had come so far to seek. She wailed over the child:

'Pearl! Pearl! What is it, darling? It is Mother!' She laid the girl
on the sofa, and taking the flowers out of a glass began to sprinkle
water on the child's face. Harold knew her voice and waited in patience.
Presently the child sighed; the mother, relieved, thought of other things
at last and looked around her.

There was yet another trouble. There on the floor, where she had slipped
down, lay Lady de Lannoy in a swoon. She called out instinctively,
forgetting for the moment that the man was blind, but feeling all the old
confidence which he had won in her heart:

'Oh! Mr. Robinson, help me! Lady de Lannoy has fainted too, and I do
not know what to do!' As she spoke she looked up at him and remembered
his blindness. But she had no time to alter her words; the instant she
had spoken Harold, who had been leaning against the window-sash, and
whose mind was calmer since with his acute hearing he too had heard Pearl
sigh, seemed to leap into the room.

'Where is she? Where is she? Oh, God, now am I blind indeed!'

It gave her a pang to hear him and to see him turn helplessly with his
arms and hands outstret