much longer,
the perspiration rolled down Mr. Angelo's face with so sustained an
effort.

He laid him gently on the floor of his study, while Lady Bassett sent
two grooms galloping for medical advice, and half a dozen servants
running for this and that stimulant, as one thing after another
occurred to her agitated mind. The very rustling of dresses and scurry
of feet overhead told all the house a great calamity had stricken it.

Lady Bassett hung over the sufferer, sighing piteously, and was for
supporting his beloved head with her tender arm; but Mr. Angelo told
her it was better to keep the head low, that the blood might flow back
to the vessels of the brain.

She cast a look of melting gratitude on her adviser, and composed
herself to apply stimulants under his direction and advice.

Thus judiciously treated, Sir Charles began to recover consciousness in
part. He stared and muttered incoherently. Lady Bassett thanked God on
her knees, and then turned to Mr. Angelo with streaming eyes, and
stretched out both hands to him, with an indescribable eloquence of
gratitude. He gave her his hands timidly, and she pressed them both
with all her soul. Unconsciously she sent a rapturous thrill through
the young man's body: he blushed, and then turned pale, and felt for a
moment almost faint with rapture at that sweet and unexpected pressure
of her soft hands.

But at this moment Sir Charles broke out in a sort of dry,
business-like voice, "I'll kill the viper and his brood!" Then he
stared at Mr. Angelo, and could not make him out at first. "Ah!" said
he, complacently, "this is my private tutor: a man of learning. I read
Homer with him; but I have forgotten it, all but one line--

"[greek]"

"That's a beautiful verse. Homer, old boy, I'll take your advice. I'll
kill the heir at law, and his brat as well, and when they are dead and
well seasoned I'll sell them to that old timber-merchant, the devil, to
make hell hotter. Order my horse, somebody, this minute!"

During this tirade Lady Bassett's hands kept clutching, as if to stop
it, and her eyes filled with horror.

Mr. Angelo came again to her rescue. He affected to take it all as a
matter of course, and told the servants they need not wait, Sir Charles
was coming to himself by degrees, and the danger was all over.

But when the servants were gone he said to Lady Bassett, seriously, "I
would not let any servant be about Sir Charles, except this one. She is
evidently