Selene had listened with closed eyes, and exhausted almost to unconsciousness; but at his last words she slightly shrugged her shoulders with a faint smile of scorn on her lips.

“You think nothing of being lame!” said the old man, who let no gesture of his patient escape him.  “That, of course, is your affair, but it is mine to see that you do not become a cripple in my hands.  The opportunity for working a miracle is not given to one of us every day, and happily for me, you yourself bring a powerful coadjutor to help me.  I do not mean a lover or anything of that kind, though you are much too pretty, but your lovely, vigorous, healthy youth.  The hole in your head is hotter than it need be—­keep it properly cool with fresh water.  Where do you live, child?”

“Almost half an hour from here,” said Hannah, answering for Selene.

“She cannot be taken so far as that, even in a litter, at present,” said the old man.

“I must go home!” cried Selene, resolutely, and trying to sit up.

“Nonsense,” exclaimed the physician.  “I must forbid your moving at all.  Be still, and be patient and obedient, or your foolish joke will come to a bad end; fever has already set in, and it will increase by the evening.  It has nothing much to do with the leg, but all the more with the inflamed scalp-wound.  Do you think,” he added, turning to the widow, “that perhaps a bed could be made here on which she might lie, and remain here till the factory reopens?”

“I would rather die,” shrieked Selene, trying to draw away her foot from the leech.

“Be still—­be still, my dear child,” said the good woman, soothingly.  “I know where I can take you.  My house is in a garden belonging to Paulina, the widow of Pudeus, near this and close to the sea; it is not above a thousand paces off, and there you will have a soft couch and tender care.  A good litter is waiting, and I should think—­”

“Even that is a good distance,” said the old man.  “However, she cannot possibly be better cared for than by you, dame Hannah.  Let us try it then, and I will accompany you to lash those accursed bearers’ skins if they do not keep in step.”

Selene made no attempt to resist these orders, and willingly drank a potion which the old man gave her; but she cried to herself as she was lifted into the litter and her foot was carefully propped on pillows.  In the street, which they soon reached through a side door, she again almost lost consciousness, and half awake but half as in a dream, she heard the leech’s voice as he cautioned the bearers to walk carefully, and saw the people, and vehicles, and horsemen pass her on their way.  Then she saw that she was being carried through a large garden, and at last she dimly perceived that she was being laid on a bed.  From that moment every thing was merged in a dream, though the frequent convulsions of pain that passed over her features and now and then a rapid movement of her hand to the cut in her head, showed that she was not altogether oblivious to the reality of her sufferings.