ried Horspital long ago," said Sary Jane. "They said they couldn't
do nothing. What's the use? Don't bother her. Let her be."

"Yes, let me be," said the Lady of Shalott, faintly. "The glass is
broken."

"But something must be done!" urged the doctor, hurrying away. "I will
attend to the matter directly."

He spoke in a busy doctor's busy way. Undoubtedly he thought that he
should attend to the matter directly.

"You have flowers here, I see." He lifted, in hurrying away, a spray of
lilies that lay upon the bed, freshly sent to the Lady of Shalott that
morning.

"They ring," said the Lady of Shalott, softly. "Can you hear?
'Bless--it! Bless--it!' Ah, yes, they ring!"

"Bless what?" asked the doctor, half out of the door.

"The Flower Charity," said the Lady of Shalott.

"Amen!" said the doctor. "But I'll attend to it directly." And he was
quite out of the door, and the door was shut.

"Sary Jane, dear?" said, the Lady of Shalott, a few minutes after the
door was shut.

"Well!" said Sary Jane.

"The glass is broken," said the Lady of Shalott.

"Should think I might know that!" said Sary Jane, who was down upon her
knees, sweeping shining pieces away into a pasteboard dust-pan.

"Sary Jane, dear?" said the Lady of Shalott again.

"Dear, dear!" echoed Sary Jane, tossing purple feathers out of the
window and seeming, to the eyes of the Lady of Shalott, to have the
spray of green waves upon her hands. "There they go!"

"Yes, there they go," said the Lady of Shalott. But she said no more
till night.

It was a hot night for South Street. It was a very hot night for even
South Street. The lean children in the attic opposite cried savagely,
like lean cubs. The monkeys from the spring-box came out and sat upon
the lid for air. Dirty people lay around the dirty hydrant; and the
purple wing stretched itself a little in a quiet way, to cover them.

"Sary Jane, dear?" said the Lady of Shalott, at night. "The glass is
broken. And, Sary Jane, dear, I am afraid I _can't_ stand it as well as
you can."

Sary Jane gave the Lady of Shalott a sharp look, and put away her
nankeen vests. She came to the bed.

"It isn't time to stop sewing, is it?" asked the Lady of Shalott, in
faint surprise. Sary Jane only gave her sharp looks, and said,--

"Nonsense! That man will be back again yet. He'll look after ye, maybe.
Nonsense!"

"Yes," said the Lady of Shalott, "he will come back again. But my glass
is broken."

"Nonse