ddle my horse and
bring him up instantly! We must follow on the road the doctor took to
see what has happened! Stay! On your life, breathe not a word of what
has occurred! I would not have Miss Day alarmed for the world!" he
concluded, hastening down-stairs attended by the servant.

In five minutes from the time he left the library Traverse was in the
saddle, galloping toward Staunton, and looking attentively along the
road as he went. Alas! he had not gone far, when, in descending the
wooded hill, he saw lying doubled up helplessly on the right side of the
path, the body of the good doctor!

With an exclamation between a groan and a cry of anguish, Traverse threw
himself from his saddle and kneeled beside the fallen figure, gazing in
an agony of anxiety upon the closed eyes, pale features and contracted
form and crying:

"Oh, heaven have mercy! Doctor Day, oh, Doctor Day! Can you speak to
me?"

The white and quivering eyelids opened and the faltering tongue spoke:

"Traverse--get me home--that I may see--Clara before I die!"

"Oh, must this be so! Must this be so! Oh, that I could die for you, my
friend! My dear, dear friend!" cried Traverse, wringing his hands in
such anguish as he had never known before.

Then feeling the need of self-control and the absolute necessity of
removing the sufferer, Traverse repressed the swelling flood of sorrow
in his bosom and cast about for the means of conveying the doctor to his
house. He dreaded to leave him for an instant, and yet it was necessary
to do so, as the servant whom he had ordered to follow him had not yet
come up.

While he was bathing the doctor's face with water from a little stream
beside the path, John, the groom, came riding along, and seeing his
fallen master, with an exclamation of horror, sprang from his saddle and
ran to the spot.

"John," said Traverse, in a heart-broken tone, "mount again and ride for
your life to the house! Have--a cart--yes--that will be the easiest
conveyance--have a cart got ready instantly with a feather bed placed in
it, and the gentlest horse harnessed to it, and drive it here to the
roadside at the head of this path! Hasten for your life! Say not a word
of what has happened lest it should terrify the ladies! Quick! quick! on
your life!"

Again, as the man was hurrying away, the doctor spoke, faintly
murmuring:

"For heaven's sake, do not let poor Clara be shocked!"

"No--no--she shall not be! I warned him, dear friend