They were all going to have tea downstairs with their mother. Noel was having his hair brushed and his hands and face washed by Nurse when he heard Chris laughing rather loudly in the hall.
He rushed out to the stairs and hung his head and shoulders over the banister rail to see what was going on.
It was only the vicar's dog who had accidentally found his way in, but he was dressed in a paper cap, and though he turned his head from side to side he could not get it off.
There was holly on the stair-rail and it pricked Noel; he leant over farther to get away from it, and then to the horror of Nurse, who had followed him out, she saw him over balance himself, and with a sudden awful thud, his little figure fell, his head striking the tiled floor of the hall with awful force.
Chris uttered a horrified cry which brought his mother out of her room.
She was the first to reach her darling, and raised him in her arms; but he lay still and unconscious. It had been so swift, so sudden an accident, that he had not had time to utter a cry.
The little household gathered round him.
"He is killed!" cried Diana and Chris together.
"No—no—stunned!" said Mrs. Inglefield in her agony, still striving to allay the fears of her children.
Then she turned to Chris: