"Something very serious has happened."
I could not look at her. I dared not to speak even, for I was oppressed with the dread of a worse tragedy. With her morbid fear of lightning she might almost lose her reason if now, in her weak, unnerved condition, she saw its effect on Mrs. Yocomb and Adah.
"Mother," moaned Mr. Yocomb; "why don't mother come?"
"She's with Zillah upstairs," I faltered. "Zillah's ill!"
"Then why does not Adah come to her father?" Miss Warren questioned, looking at me keenly.
I felt that disguise was useless.
"Mr. Morton, your hand so trembles that you can scarcely break the ice. Something dreadful has happened—there's the smell of smoke and fire in the house. Tell me, tell me!" and she laid her hand appealingly on my arm.
"Oh, Miss Warren," I groaned, "let me shield you. If further harm should come to you to-night—"
"Further harm will come unless you treat me as a woman, not as a child," she said firmly. "I know you mean it kindly, and no doubt I have seemed weak enough to warrant any amount of shielding."
At this moment there came a peal of thunder from the passing storm, and she sank shudderingly into a chair. As it passed she sprang up and said: