when she was a girl. "There has been an accident, I see. Are you very
much hurt? Eleanor, pray do not stand like a thing of stock or stone;
pray, do not be so useless and incapable."

Nell blushed and looked round helplessly.

"Please sit down," went on Mrs. Lorton. "Eleanor, let me beg of you to
collect your senses. Get that cushion--sit down. Let me place this at
your back. Do you feel faint? My smelling salts, Eleanor!"

The man's lips tightened, and the frown darkened the whole of his face.
Nell knew that he was swearing under his breath and wishing Mrs. Lorton
and herself at the bottom of the sea.

"No, no!" he said, evidently struggling with his irritation and his
impatience of the whole scene. "I'm not at all faint. I've fallen from
my horse, and I think I've smashed my arm, that's all."

"All!" echoed Mrs. Lorton, in accents of profound sympathy and anxiety.
"Oh, dear, dear! Nell, we must send for the doctor. Will you not put
your feet up on the sofa? It is such a relief to lie at full length."

He rose with a look of determination in his dark eyes.

"Thank you very much, madame, but I cannot consent to give you any
further trouble. I am quite capable of walking to anywhere, and I
will----" He broke off with an exclamation and sank down again. "I must
be worse than I thought," he said suddenly, "and I must ask you to put
up with me for a little while--half an hour."

Mrs Lorton crossed the room with the air of an empress, or a St. Teresa
on the verge of a great mission, and rang the bell.

"I cannot permit you to leave this house until you have recovered--quite
recovered," she said, in a stately fashion. "Molly, get the spare room
ready for this gentleman. Eleanor, you might assist, I think! I will see
that the sheets are properly aired--nothing is more important in such a
case--and we will send for the doctor while you are retiring."

Molly plunged out, followed by Nell, and Mrs. Lorton seated herself
opposite the injured man, and, folding her hands, gazed at him as if she
were solely accountable for his welfare.

"I'm very much obliged to you, madame," he said, at last, and by no
means amiably. "May I ask to whom I am indebted for so much--kindness?"

"My name is Lorton," said the dear lady, as if she had picked him up and
brought him in and given him brandy; "but I am a Wolfer."

He looked at her as if he thought she were mad, and Mrs. Lorton hastened
to explain.

"I am a near relative of Lor