"He is innocent—he is quite innocent. Oh, shall I be in time to save him?"
She sprung toward the door, but never reached it, for, with a low moaning cry, she fell senseless on the floor. He raised her and laid her on the couch, and then opened the door hastily and went to the foot of the stairs.
"Mother," he called, "will you come down? I want you at once!"
A kindly-looking lady with a pleasant, comely face entered the room.
"Look here," said Dr. Robert Chalmers, pointing to the white figure. "What are we to do, mother?"
Mrs. Chalmers went up to Hyacinth; with a soft womanly touch she put back the rich, clustering hair, with keen womanly eyes she noted the loveliness of the white face.
"Has she fainted? Who is she?" she asked of her son.
"I do not know—I had no time to speak to her. She is some lady who has called for medical advice, no doubt. It seems to me more like a case of incipient brain fever than of mere fainting; by the strange way in which she cried out I should imagine her to be quite delirious."
Then they both stood for some minutes gazing in silence on that exquisite face.