"Well, what of that? Do you think she cannot do it safely?"
"It is not that, but why is she doing it? Where are the others? What has happened, that they cannot come to the usual place?"
"Really, Elise, I think you are exciting yourself for nothing. I am very busy. They will all be home directly, you'll find."
She turned and left the room. It was growing dark, and she could no longer see clearly; but in a few minutes, a figure came quickly up the steep lawn, and Lizzie ran up to her.
"Mother, Clarice has had a fall, and is hurt. A stone fell on her. Aymer is carrying her up from the boat."
Aymer was beside them already.
"Don't try to take her, mother, darling. Her knee is badly hurt, but she's not hurt anywhere else, I think. Let me carry her to her bed at once; she's all wet and dripping."
At the sound of the voices Katty came running out of the kitchen.
"Och! Murdher! What's the matter with the darling of me heart?"
But Elise spoke not a word. She went up-stairs before Aymer, and took an old waterproof cloak from the place in the passage where it hung, laying it over Clarice's little bed, to keep it dry. Aymer laid his burden down tenderly.