t then--what was it? an indescribable thrill through the house, the
sound of a heavy fall. They all started up from their seats to hear what
it was. Then Ursula, with a cry of apprehension, rushed downstairs, and
the others after her. Betsy, alarmed, had come out of the kitchen,
followed by her assistant, and was standing frightened, but irresolute;
for Mr. May was not a man to be disturbed with impunity. And this might
be nothing--the falling of a chair or a table, and nothing more.

"What is it?" cried Ursula, in an anxious whisper.

She was the leader in the emergency, for even Reginald held back. Then,
after a moment's pause, she opened the door, and with a little cry
rushed in. It was, as they feared, Mr. May who had fallen; but he had so
far recovered himself as to be able to make efforts to rise. His face
was towards them. It was very pale, of a livid colour, and covered with
moisture, great beads standing on his forehead. He smiled vaguely when
he saw the circle of faces.

"Nothing--nothing--a faintness," he faltered, making again an effort to
rise.

"What is it, papa? Oh, what's the matter?" cried Janey, rushing at him
and seizing him by the arm. "Get up! get up! what will people think? Oh,
Ursula, how queer he looks, and he feels so heavy. Oh, please get up,
papa!"

"Go away," said Mr. May, "go away. It is--a faintness. I am very well
where I am--"

But he did not resist when Reginald and Northcote lifted him from the
floor. He had a piece of paper tightly clasped in his hand. He gave them
a strange suspicious look all round, and shrank when his eyes fell upon
Phoebe. "Don't let her know," he said. "Take me away, take me away."

"Reginald will take you upstairs, papa--to your room--to bed; you ought
to go to bed. It is the long walk that has worn you out. Oh, Reginald,
don't contradict him, let him go where he pleases. Oh, papa, where _are_
you going?" cried Ursula, "the other way; you want to go to bed."

"This way, take me--somewhere," said the sufferer; though he could not
stand he made a step, staggering between them, and an effort to push
towards the hall door, and when they directed him in the other direction
to the staircase which led to his room, he struggled feebly yet
violently with them. "No, no, no, not there!" he cried. The sudden
confusion, dismay, and alarm into which the family was plunged, the
strange sense of a catastrophe that came upon them, cannot be told.
Ursula, calling out all