Instead of answering, Celia knelt down by her, and uttered one word—a word she had never used to her before.
"Mother!"
Lady Ingram dropped her work, and looked into Celia's face.
"My dear," she said, her voice slightly trembling, "you have bad news to tell me. At once, if you please—I do not like things broken gradually."
At once Celia told her: "Philip is killed."
With a wild shriek which rang through the house, Philip's mother flung up her arms—as Celia remembered that, once before in her life, Claude De L'Orient had done—and then fell back heavily and silently in her chair. Celia, ignorant and terrified, threw open the door and called for Patient and Thérèse. They came in together, the former quiet and practical, the latter screaming and wringing her hands.
"Eh, my faith! Madam is dead!" shrieked Thérèse.
"'Tis but a dwawm, Madam," was the decision of Patient. "Please to open the window. Thérèsa, cut her Ladyship's lace[[18]] whilst I fetch her water."
"But, my dear friend," remonstrated Thérèse, with an invocation in addition, "that will spoil her figure!"
"Go down-stairs and fetch a glass of water," said Patient, with a spice of scorn. "That's all you are fit for. Madam, will you please to hold her Ladyship's head while I get at her lace and cut it?"