up! We are late! What if the monarch should
reach the works before us? I shouldn't like to meet him in his roused
wrath! Should you?

"Old age ne'er cooled the Douglass blood!"

said Mr. Fabian, hurriedly pulling on his overcoat, seizing hat and
gloves, and with a hasty--

"Good-by, Cora, until to-night," hurried out of the front door.

He need not have been in such haste--the Iron King was not destined to
reach North End in advance of his sons that morning.

Mr. Clarence kissed Corona good-by, and hurried after his elder brother,
and then stopped short at what he saw.

Mr. Fabian was standing before the carriage door with one foot on the
step.

Beside him was a horseman who had just ridden up--the horse in a lather
of foam, the man breathless and dazed--telling some news in broken
sentences; Mr. Fabian listening pallid and aghast.

"Great Heaven! how sudden! how shocking!" he exclaimed at last, turning
back toward the house, and hurrying up the steps.

"What is it? What is the matter? What has happened, Fabian?" anxiously
demanded Clarence.

"The father has had a stroke! No time for particulars now! Take the
fastest horse in the stable and go yourself to North End to fetch the
doctor. You can bring him sooner than any servant. I must go directly on
to Rockhold. Cora must delay her journey again. Be off, Clarence!" said
Mr. Fabian.

And while the elder brother returned to the house, the younger went to
get his horse.

"Cora!" called Mr. Fabian.

Corona came out of the parlor.

"You cannot go away to-day."

"Why?" inquired the young lady.

"Don't talk! Listen! Your grandfather is ill--very ill. Old John has
just come from Rockhold to tell me."

"Oh! I am very sorry."

"No time for words! Go put on your bonnet, and come along with me; the
carriage that was to have taken me to North End must take us both to
Rockhold. Hurry, Cora."

"But Violet?"

"I will go and tell Violet that the grandfather is not feeling very
well, and has sent for you. I can do this while you are getting ready to
go. Then come into the nursery and bid Violet good-by."

Corona hurried up to her room, and quickly put on her bonnet and
fur-lined cloak, and then ran into the nursery, where she found Violet
nursing her baby, looking serious but composed, and evidently
unconscious of old Aaron Rockharrt's danger. Mr. Fabian was standing at
the back of her chair, so that she might not read the truth in his face.

"So you ar