beef for him. Stew it in red wine and water."

"That I will: poor thing!"

"Why, I know him," said the baroness suddenly; "it is an old
acquaintance, young Dujardin: you remember, Josephine. I used to suspect
him of a fancy for you, poor fellow! Why, he must have come here to see
us, poor soul."

"No matter who it is; it is a man. Now, girls, have you courage, have
you humanity? Then come one on each side of him and take hands beneath
his back, while I lift his head and Dard his legs."

"And handle him gently whatever you do," said Dard. "I know what it is
to be wounded."

These four carried the lifeless burden very slowly and gently across the
Pleasaunce to the house, then with more difficulty and caution up the
stairs.

All the while the sisters' hands griped one another tight beneath the
lifeless burden, and spoke to one another. And Josephine's arm upheld
tenderly but not weakly the hero she had struck down. She avoided Rose's
eye, her mother's, and even the doctor's: one gasping sob escaped her as
she walked with head half averted, and vacant, terror-stricken eyes, and
her victim on her sustaining arm.

The doctor selected the tapestried chamber for him as being most airy.
Then he ordered the women out, and with Dard's help undressed the still
insensible patient.

Josephine sat down on the stairs in gloomy silence, her eyes on the
ground, like one waiting for her deathblow.

Rose, sick at heart, sat silent too at some distance. At last she said
faintly, "Have we done well?"

"I don't know," said Josephine doggedly. Her eyes never left the ground.

"We could not let him die for want of care."

"He will not thank us. Better for him to die than live. Better for me."

At this instant Dard came running down. "Good news, mesdemoiselles, good
news! the wound runs all along; it is not deep, like mine was. He has
opened his eyes and shut them again. The dear good doctor stopped the
blood in a twinkle. The doctor says he'll be bound to save him. I must
run and tell Jacintha. She is taking on in the kitchen."

Josephine, who had risen eagerly from her despairing posture, clasped
her hands together, then lifted up her voice and wept. "He will live! he
will live!"

When she had wept a long while, she said to Rose, "Come, sister, help
your poor Josephine."

"Yes, love, what shall we do?"

"My duty," faltered Josephine. "An hour ago it seemed so sweet," and
she fell to weeping patiently again. They went to