'Pa! 'Milly protested, shocked.
John sprang up, fuming, turned the gas on to the full, and rushed back to the doorway.
'Ah!' he shouted. 'I knew it was a tramp lying there. Get up. Is the beggar asleep?'
They all bent down, startled into gravity, to examine a form which lay in the portico, nearly parallel with the step and below it.
'It's Uncle Meshach,' said Ethel. 'Oh! mother!'
'Then my aunt's had another attack,' cried John, 'and he's come up to tell us, and—Milly, run for Carpenter.'
It seemed to Leonora, as with sudden awe she vaguely figured an august and capricious power which conferred experience on mortals like a wonderful gift, that that bestowing hand was never more full than when it had given most.