"There seems a blur before my eyes. It does not signify. I know your voice, so true and kind."
"Why can't he see?" she asked, drawing her aunt aside.
"I don't know. What I fear most are internal injuries. Did the ladder strike his head?"
"O merciful Heaven!" said Annie, again in an agony of fear. "I don't know. Oh, if he should die—if he should die—" and she wrung her hands with terror at the thought.
The doctor now stepped lightly in. Jeff had told him enough to excite the gravest apprehensions. He made a few inquiries and felt Gregory's pulse.
"It's very feeble," he said. "More brandy."
Then he added, "I must make such examination as I can now without disturbing him much. Miss Morton, you and Jeff stay and help me."
Annie went down to her father with a greater anxiety as to the result of the examination than if the danger had been her own.
She found her father awake, and wondering at the sounds in the room above.
"Annie," he said, feebly, "what is going on in Mr. Gregory's room?"