Miss Jane asked me to come as sharp as I could.'

'Ill? In what way?'

'I'm afraid it's a stroke, or something in that line. He fell down
without a word of warning, just before ten o'clock. He's lying
insensible.'

'I'll come at once,' said Joseph. 'They've got a doctor, I hope?'

'Yes; the doctor had been summoned instantly.'

'I'll go with you,' said Clem, in a tone of decision.

'No, no; what's the good? You'll only be in the way.'

'No, I shan't. If he's as bad as all that, I shall come.'

Both withdrew to prepare themselves. Mr. Byass, who was very nervous
and perspiring freely, began to walk round and round the table,
inspecting closely, in complete absence of mind, the objects that lay
on it.

'We'll have a cab,' cried Joseph, as he came forth equipped. 'Poor
Jane's in a sad state, I'm afraid, oh?'

In a few minutes they were driving up Pentonville Road. Clem scarcely
ever removed her eye from Joseph's face; the latter held his lips close
together and kept his brows wrinkled. Few words passed during the drive.

At the door of the house appeared Bessie, much agitated. All turned
into the parlour on the ground floor and spoke together for a few
minutes. Michael had been laid on his bed; at present Jane only was
with him, but the doctor would return shortly.

'Will you tell her I'm here?' said Joseph to Mrs. Byass. 'I'll see her
in the sitting-room.'

He went up and waited. Throughout the house prevailed that unnatural,
nerve-distressing quietude which tells the presence of calamity. The
church bells had ceased ringing, and Sunday's silence in the street
enhanced the effect of blankness and alarming expectancy. Joseph could
not keep still; he strained his ears in attention to any slight sound
that might come from the floor above, and his heart beat painfully when
at length the door opened.

Jane fixed her eyes on him and came silently forward.

'Does he show any signs of coming round?' her father inquired.

'No. He hasn't once moved.'

She spoke only just above a whisper. The shock kept her still trembling
and her face bloodless.

'Tell me how it happened, Jane.'

'He'd just got up. I'd taken him his breakfast, and we were talking.
All at once he began to turn round, and then he fell down--before I
could reach him.'

'I'll go upstairs, shall I?'

Jane could not overcome her fear; at the door of the bedroom she drew
back, involuntarily, that her father might enter before her. When she
forc