Steps came in at the house door.

There was an exclamation; a hush.  Mr. Prendible’s voice, Kenneth Kincaid’s, Mr. Dimsey’s, the minister’s.

“O!  How? “—­Mrs. Prendible’s voice, now.

“Take care!”

“Where are they?”

Mrs. Ledwith heard.

“What is the matter?”—­springing up, with a sudden instinct of precognition.

Desire had not seen or heard till now.  She dropped her work.

“What is it, mother?”

Mrs. Ledwith was up, upon the floor; in the doorway out in the passage; trembling; seized all over with a horrible dread and vague knowledge.

“Tell me what it is!” she cried, to those down below.

They were all there upon the staircase; Mrs. Prendible furthest up.

“O, Mrs. Ledwith!” she cried. “Don’t be frightened! Don’t take on!  Take it easy,—­do!”

Desire rushed down among them; past Mrs. Prendible, past the minister, straight to Kenneth Kincaid.

Kenneth took her right in his arms, and carried her into a little room below.

“There could have been no pain,” he said, tenderly.  “It was the accident of a moment.  Be strong,—­be patient, dear!”

There had been tender words natural to his lips lately.  It was not strange that in his great pity he used them now.

“My father!” gasped Desire.

“Yes; your father.  It was our Father’s will.”

“Help me to go to my mother!”

She took his hand, half blind, almost reeling.

And then they all, somehow, found themselves up-stairs.

There were moans of pain; there were words of prayer.  We have no right there.  It is all told.

* * * * *

“Be strong,—­be patient, dear!”

It came back, in the midst of the darkness, the misery; it helped her through those days; it made her strong for her mother.  It comforted her, she hardly knew how much; but O, how cruel it seemed afterward!

They went directly down to Boston.  Mr. Ledwith was buried from their own house.  It was all over; and now, what should they do?  Uncle Titus came to see them.  Mrs. Ripwinkley came right back from Homesworth.  Dorris Kincaid left her summer-time all behind, and came to stay with them a week in Shubarton Place.  Mrs. Ledwith craved companionship; her elder daughters were away; there were these five weeks to go by until she could hear from them.  She would not read their letters that came now, full of chat and travel.

Poor Laura! her family scattered; her dependence gone; her life all broken down in a moment!

Dorris Kincaid did not speak of Kenneth and Rosamond.  How could she bring news of others’ gladness into that dim and sorrowful house?

Luclarion Grapp shut up her rooms, left her plants and her birds with Mrs. Gallilee, and came up to Shubarton Place in the beginning.  There were no servants there; everything was adrift; the terrible blows of life take people between the harness, most unprovided, unawares.