now. "O, can't something be done to stop it?"
she cried. "Is there nobody to do it--not one?"

She relinquished Lucetta's hands, and ran to the door. Lucetta herself,
saying recklessly "I will see it!" turned to the window, threw up the
sash, and went out upon the balcony. Elizabeth immediately followed, and
put her arm round her to pull her in. Lucetta's eyes were straight upon
the spectacle of the uncanny revel, now dancing rapidly. The numerous
lights round the two effigies threw them up into lurid distinctness; it
was impossible to mistake the pair for other than the intended victims.

"Come in, come in," implored Elizabeth; "and let me shut the window!"

"She's me--she's me--even to the parasol--my green parasol!" cried
Lucetta with a wild laugh as she stepped in. She stood motionless for
one second--then fell heavily to the floor.

Almost at the instant of her fall the rude music of the skimmington
ceased. The roars of sarcastic laughter went off in ripples, and the
trampling died out like the rustle of a spent wind. Elizabeth was only
indirectly conscious of this; she had rung the bell, and was bending
over Lucetta, who remained convulsed on the carpet in the paroxysms of
an epileptic seizure. She rang again and again, in vain; the probability
being that the servants had all run out of the house to see more of the
Daemonic Sabbath than they could see within.

At last Farfrae's man, who had been agape on the doorstep, came up;
then the cook. The shutters, hastily pushed to by Elizabeth, were quite
closed, a light was obtained, Lucetta carried to her room, and the man
sent off for a doctor. While Elizabeth was undressing her she recovered
consciousness; but as soon as she remembered what had passed the fit
returned.

The doctor arrived with unhoped-for promptitude; he had been standing
at his door, like others, wondering what the uproar meant. As soon as he
saw the unhappy sufferer he said, in answer to Elizabeth's mute appeal,
"This is serious."

"It is a fit," Elizabeth said.

"Yes. But a fit in the present state of her health means mischief. You
must send at once for Mr. Farfrae. Where is he?"

"He has driven into the country, sir," said the parlour-maid; "to some
place on the Budmouth Road. He's likely to be back soon."

"Never mind, he must be sent for, in case he should not hurry." The
doctor returned to the bedside again. The man was despatched, and they
soon heard him clattering out of the yard a