railroad wear out,
don't you know, if there's excessive traffic.'

Mr. Horton had known Mary from her childhood, had given her Gregory's
powder, and seen her safely through measles and other infantine
ailments, so he was quite at home with her, and at Fellside generally.
Lady Maulevrier had given him a good deal of her confidence during those
thirty years in which he had practised as his father's partner and
successor at Grasmere. He used to tell people that he owed the best part
of his education to her ladyship, who condescended to talk to him of the
new books she read, and generally gave him a volume to put in his pocket
when he was leaving her.

'Don't be downhearted, Lady Mary,' he said; 'I shall come in two or
three times a day and see how things are going on, and if I see the
slightest difficulty in the case I'll telegraph for Jenner.'

Mary and the Fraeulein sat up with the invalid all that night. Lady
Maulevrier's maid was also in attendance, and one of the menservants
slept in his clothes on a couch in the corridor, ready for any
emergency. But the night passed peacefully, the patient slept a good
deal, and next day there was evident improvement. The stroke which had
prostrated the body, which reduced the vigorous, active frame to an
awful statue--like stillness--a quietude as of death of itself--had not
overclouded the intellect. Lady Maulevrier lay on her bed in her
luxurious room, with wide Tudor windows commanding half the circle of
the hills, and was still the ruling spirit of the house, albeit
powerless to move that slender hand, the lightest wave of which had been
as potent to command in her little world as royal sign-manual or sceptre
in the great world outside.

Now there remained only one thing unimpaired by that awful shock which
had laid the stately frame low, and that was the will and sovereign
force of the woman's nature. Voice was altered, speech was confused and
difficult; but the strength of will, the supreme power of mind, seemed
undiminished.

When Lady Maulevrier was asked if Lesbia should be telegraphed for, she
replied no, not unless she was in danger of sudden death.

'I should like to see her before I go,' she said, labouring to pronounce
the words.

'Dear grandmother,' said Mary, tenderly, 'Mr. Horton says there is no
danger.'

'Then do not send for her; do not even tell her what has happened; not
yet.'

'But she will miss your letters.'

'True. You must write twice a week