water; and I'll go for the
doctor."

But Mr. Babbage represented that he must himself 'go on hum,' and would
pass by the doctor's door; so if the minister would stay and help the
women folks, it would be more advisable. Accordingly the farmer's
waggon wheels were soon heard departing, and the little group in the
lean-to kitchen were left alone. Too busy at first to think of it, they
were trying eagerly every restorative and stimulant they could think of
and command; but with little effect. A little, they thought; but
consciousness had not returned to the injured girl, when they had done
all they knew how to do, and tried everything within their reach. Hope
began to fade towards despair; still they kept on with the use of their
remedies. Mrs. Starling went and came between the room where they were
and the stove, which stood in some outside shed, fetching bottles of
hot water; I think, between whiles, she was washing up her cups and
saucers; the other two, in the silence of her absences, could feel the
strange, solemn contrasts which one must feel, and does, even in the
midst of keener anxieties than those which beset the watchers there.
The girl, a fair, rather pretty person, pleasant-tempered and generally
liked, lay still and senseless on the table round which she and others
a little while ago had been seated at supper. Very still the room was
now, that had been full of voices; the smell of camphor and brandy was
about; the table was wet in one great spot with the cold water which
had been applied to the girl's face. And through the open door and
windows came the stir of the sweet night air, and the sound of insects,
and the gurgle of a brook that ran a few yards off; peaceful, free,
glad, as if all were as it had been last night, or nature took no
cognizance of human affairs. The minister had been very active and
helpful; bringing wood and drawing water and making up the fire, as
well as anybody, Mrs. Starling said afterwards; he had taken his part
in the actual nursing, and better than anybody, Diana thought. Now the
two stood silent and grave by the long table, while they still kept up
the application of brandy to the face and heat to the extremities, and
rubbing the hands and wrists of the patient.

"Did you know Miss Delamater well?" asked the minister.

"Yes--as I know nearly all the girls," Diana answered.

"Do you think she is ready for the change--if she must make it?"

Diana hesitated. "I never heard he