'Tell me how it happened, Jane.'
'He'd just got up. I'd taken him his breakfast, and we were talking.
All at once he began to turn round, and then he fell down--before
I could reach him.'
'I'll go upstairs, shall I?'
Jane could not overcome her fear; at the door of the bedroom she
drew back, involuntarily, that her father might enter before her.
When she forced herself to follow, the first glimpse of the
motionless form shook her from head to foot. The thought of death
was dreadful to her, and death seemed to lurk invisibly in this
quiet room. The pale sunlight affected her as a mockery of hope.
'You won't go away again, father?' she whispered.
He shook his head.
In the meantime Bessie and Clem were conversing. On the single
previous occasion of Clem's visit to the house they had not met.
They examined each other's looks with curiosity. Clem wished it were
possible to get at the secrets of which Mrs. Byass was doubtless in
possession; Bessie on her side was reserved, circumspect.
'Will he get over it?' the former inquired, with native brutality.
'I'm sure I don't know; I hope he may.'
The medical man arrived, and when he came downstairs again Joseph
accompanied him.
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