‘It is my fault,’ he eagerly interrupted.  ’I am glad it has happened to no one else.’

’And you are terribly hurt!  I must go for help! but what can I do for you?  Would you like some water?

‘Water!  Oh!  I have heard it all this time gurgling there!’

She filled his cap, and bathed his face, apparently to his great relief, and she ventured to ask if he had been long there.

‘Very long!’ he said.  ’I must have fainted after I got the stone off my foot, so I missed Gervas going by.  I thought no one else would come near.  Thank God!’

Mary almost grew sick as she saw how dreadfully his left ankle had been crushed by a heavy stone; and her very turning towards it made him shudder, and say, ‘Don’t touch me!  I am shattered all over.’

‘I am afraid I should only hurt you,’ she said, with difficulty controlling herself.  ‘I had better fetch some one.’

He did not know how to be left again; but the damp chilliness of his hands made her the more anxious to procure assistance, and, after spreading her shawl over him, she made the utmost speed out of the thicket.  As she emerged, she saw Lord Ormersfield riding with his groom, and her scream and sign arrested him; but, by the time they met, she could utter nothing but ‘Louis!’

‘Another accident!’ was the almost impatient answer.

‘He is dreadfully hurt!’ she said, sobbing and breathless.  ’His foot is crushed!  He has been there this hour!’

The alarm was indeed given.  The Earl seemed about to rush away without knowing whither; and she had absolutely to withhold him, while, summoning her faculties, she gave directions to Poynings.  Then she let him draw her on, too fast for speaking, until they reached the spot where Louis lay, so spent with pain and cold, that he barely opened his eyes at their voices, made no distinct answers as to his hurts, and shrank and moaned when his father would have raised him.

Mary contrived to place his head on her lap, bathed his forehead and chafed his hands, while Lord Ormersfield stood watching him with looks of misery, or paced about, anxiously looking for the servants.

They came at last, all too soon for poor Louis, who suffered terribly in the transport, and gave few tokens of consciousness, except a cry now and then extorted by a rougher movement.

None of the household, scarcely even Mrs. Frost, seemed at first to be able to believe that Lord Fitzjocelyn could really have hurt himself seriously.  ‘Again!’ was the first word of every one, for his many slight accidents were treated like crying ‘Wolf;’ but Frampton himself looked perfectly pale and shocked when he perceived how the matter really stood; and neither he nor Lord Ormersfield was half so helpful as Mrs. Frost.  The shock only called out her energy in behalf of her darling, and, tender as her nature was, she shrank from nothing that could soothe and alleviate his suffering; and it did infinitely comfort him, as he held her hand and looked with affection into her face, even in the extremity of pain.