"Are you very frightened?" Joy asked. "Don't cry, Celia. Why, you're shaking like a leaf!"
"Oh, Joy, we shall be killed! I believe the walls of the house will fall in, and crush us to death! Oh," her voice rising almost to a shriek as the thunder crashed overhead, "this is terrible!"
"Nonsense, child," said Sir Jasper, soothingly; "no harm will come to you."
But for once Celia took no heed of his words. She clung closely to Joy, sobbing and shivering with fright, whilst Joy whispered to her that there was nothing to fear.
"Don't be such a coward, Celia!" Eric said, sharply. "I'm ashamed of you. Why should the storm affect you more than any one else? Stop that whimpering, do."
"Oh, don't be hard on her, Eric," Joy remonstrated; "she can't help being frightened."
Sir Jasper watched the two girls in silence. He noticed how the elder clung to the younger as though for protection, and wondered, for Celia had always appeared to him so self-reliant till now. By-and-by the fury of the storm abated, the thunder became more and more distant, and the lightning flashes less forked and vivid. Then Celia raised her face from her sister shoulder, where she had hidden it, and looked around rather nervously, meeting an encouraging smile from Sir Jasper.
"Cheer up, my dear," he said, "the worst of the storm is over, so I suggest we all adjourn to the dining-room to tea."
Celia, much subdued in spirits, went to her bedroom, followed by Joy, to smooth her ruffled hair and bathe her tear-stained face, whilst Sir Jasper requested Eric to give him his arm to lean upon as he went downstairs.
"We do not often get such a storm as the one we have had this afternoon in Devonshire," Sir Jasper remarked a few minutes later, when they were all seated at the tea-table; "it came on so suddenly too, though the air has been heavy with thunder all day. I think I never saw more vivid lightning. I do not wonder poor Celia was alarmed."