ck-room, the
physician, who had been summoned from Bristol, arrived to consult with
the medical attendant of the family. He could give no comfort: he could
only say, "We must try, and hope. The shock which struck her, when she
overheard the news of her husband's death, has prostrated her strength
at the time when she needed it most. No effort to preserve her shall be
neglected. I will stay here for the night."

He opened one of the windows to admit more air as he spoke. The view
overlooked the drive in front of the house and the road outside. Little
groups of people were standing before the lodge-gates, looking in. "If
those persons make any noise," said the doctor, "they must be warned
away." There was no need to warn them: they were only the laborers who
had worked on the dead man's property, and here and there some women and
children from the village. They were all thinking of him--some talking
of him--and it quickened their sluggish minds to look at his house.
The gentlefolks thereabouts were mostly kind to them (the men said),
but none like _him_. The women whispered to each other of his comforting
ways when he came into their cottages. "He was a cheerful man, poor
soul; and thoughtful of us, too: he never came in and stared at
meal-times; the rest of 'em help us, and scold us--all _he_ ever said
was, better luck next time." So they stood and talked of him, and looked
at his house and grounds and moved off clumsily by twos and threes, with
the dim sense that the sight of his pleasant face would never comfort
them again. The dullest head among them knew, that night, that the hard
ways of poverty would be all the harder to walk on, now he was gone.

A little later, news was brought to the bed-chamber door that old Mr.
Clare had come alone to the house, and was waiting in the hall below, to
hear what the physician said. Miss Garth was not able to go down to him
herself: she sent a message. He said to the servant, "I'll come and ask
again, in two hours' time"--and went out slowly. Unlike other men in
all things else, the sudden death of his old friend had produced no
discernible change in him. The feeling implied in the errand of inquiry
that had brought him to the house was the one betrayal of human sympathy
which escaped the rugged, impenetrable old man.

He came again, when the two hours had expired; and this time Miss Garth
saw him.

They shook hands in silence. She waited; she nerved herself to hear him
speak