till on tip-toe, still listening, and laid her fingers on the
handle. There were more gentle movements within now, the noise of water
and a basin (she heard the china clink distinctly), but no more words.

She turned the handle resolutely and looked in.

* * * * *

The Major was leaning in the corner by the window, with his hands in his
pockets, staring with a dull, white, defiant kind of face at the bed.
The lamp on the mantelpiece lighted him up clearly. On his knees by the
bedside was her husband, with his back to her, supporting a basin on the
bed and some thing dark that hung over it. Then she saw Frank. It was he
who was lying on the bed almost upon his face; one boot dangled down on
this side, and it was his head that her husband was supporting. She
stared at it a moment in terror.... Then her eyes wandered to the floor,
where, among the pieces of broken glass, a pool of dark liquid spread
slowly over the boards. Twigs and detached leaves of holly lay in the
midst of it. And at that sight her instinct reasserted herself.

She stepped forward and took her husband by the shoulder. He turned a
face that twitched a little towards her. She pushed him aside, took the
basin from him, and the young man's head....

"Clear out of this," she whispered sharply. "Quick, mind! You and the
Major!... Jimmie!" The boy was by her in an instant, shaking all over,
but perfectly self-controlled.

"Jimmie, put your things on and be off to the clergy-house. Ring 'em up,
and ask for Mr. Carter. Bring him round with you."

Frank's head slipped a little in her hands, and she half rose to steady
it. When she had finished and looked round again for her husband, the
room was empty. From below up the stairs came a sudden draught, and the
flame leaped in the lamp-chimney. And then, once more unrestrained, rose
up the wailing of 'Erb.

(IV)

A little after dawn on that Christmas morning Mr. Parham-Carter sat
solitary in the kitchen. The children had been packed off to a
neighbor's house before, and he himself had been to and fro all night
and was tired out--to the priest's house at Homerton, to the doctor's,
and to the parish nurse. All the proper things had been done. Frank had
been anointed by the priest, bandaged by the doctor, and settled in by
the nurse into the middle of the big double bed. He had not yet
recovered consciousness. They were upstairs now--Jack, Dick and the
nurse; the priest and th