having just learned that Elizabeth
had met with some accident, while Tom came forward more anxious still.

"Are you hurt? are you hurt?" demanded Elsie.

Elizabeth assured her that she was not in the least injured, tried to
laugh at Mellen's solicitude, but looked very nervous still.

"You are sure you are not hurt?" urged Tom.

"Perfectly sure."

"Maybe I'd better run after a doctor though?"

"Nonsense, Tom," she said, a little impatiently, "when I tell you I am
not hurt in the least."

Tom and Elsie cried out together to know how the accident had happened,
but Mellen gave a very brief explanation, while Elizabeth entered the
hall and sat down in a chair to rest.

Tom ran to bring her a glass of wine which she did not want, and they
all worried her with their solicitude, till it required great patience
to restrain herself from breaking away from them rudely and rushing into
the solitude she so much needed.

"If I had hold of the creature that scared the horse, I'd mill him,"
cried Tom, irately.

"I don't suppose he was to blame," said Elsie.

"Of course not," added Elizabeth; "of course not."

Mellen made no remark; he was watching Elizabeth, who still looked pale
and oppressed.

"Do you feel better?" he asked.

"Much, I assure you; don't be frightened about me."

"Bessie is such a heroine!" cried Elsie.

Elizabeth gave one of the irritated looks with which she had sometimes
regarded Elsie of late, but made no remark.

"She's a trump!" said Tom; "that's all there is about it."

Elsie laughed.

"I shall go up to my room and lie down," Elizabeth said; "an hour's rest
will restore me completely."

Mellen assisted her upstairs and Elsie accompanied them, quite ready to
accept Elizabeth's assurance that she was not injured, and doing her
best to make them both laugh.

"Accidents seem the order of the day," she said; "it's lucky for us,
Bessie, that we always have some one near to help us."

"Yes," was the weary reply.

"Do you think you could go to sleep now?" Mellen asked.

"Perhaps so," she said; "I will try, at all events."

"The best thing for you," said Elsie. "I'll sit with you a little while,
and be still as a mouse."

Elsie was never sorry to escape from sickness or unpleasant occurrences
of any kind, and could be of no more use in trouble than a canary-bird
or a hot-house blossom. But just now she had an object in remaining.

The moment Mellen had withdrawn, she took North's lett