“What is the matter with ’ee, dearie?” inquired the sympathetic woman, as she gave her hand, which the girl clasped spasmodically, and held fast.
“Oh, Granny, Granny Lindsay, I have had such a horrid, horrid nightmare! I dreamed that I was drowning, and, oh, I saw and felt it all, as if it had been real! Oh, Granny Lindsay, don’t leave me yet, but tell me what has happened, and how I came to be here? Have I been ill a long time?—and delirious? I have heard of people being so ill and delirious that they could know nothing of the passage of time. Uncle was so, you know, after auntie died. Have I been so long?”
“No, dearie, ’ee couldn’t talk so fast, if ’ee had been,” replied the dame, with a smile.
“Then what has happened, and how is it that I am here instead of at home?”
“’Ee has had a ducking in the sea, lassie, no worse. ’Ee was swept off the Rogue’s Neck by the tide, when ’ee was too late in trying to cross, and ’ee might have——”
“Oh, yes, yes, yes, it was no nightmare, but an awful fact!” murmured the girl to herself, as she pressed her hands upon her face.
“And ’ee might have been drowned sure enough if Davie hadn’t seen ’ee from his boat and picked ’ee up, dearie.”
“David Lindsay?” breathed the girl.
“Ay, dearie, David Lindsay. He picked ’ee up and brought ’ee home here, because it was so much nearer than the hall, ’ee knows, dearie.”
“David Lindsay saved my life!” murmured the girl, dreamily.