“He sprang through the flames, the child close in his arms.”
The Family at Misrule] [[Page 271.]
[271]
]Poppet, mad with terror, was still pulling at Mrs. Hassal, and the mosquito nets of the bed had just caught.
He pushed the child aside, and bade her go into the one safe corner. Then he enveloped Mrs. Hassal in the blanket, carried her across the room, and hastily put her through the window to Bunty.
Then he went back for the little girl,—Meg’s little sister.
He took off his coat to wrap her in, as the other bedclothes had caught, but as he did so Bunty threw back the big blanket, and he used it instead.
The flames at the window were growing worse, but [he sprang] through them, the child close in his arms. When they took the blanket off her not a hair of her head was hurt.
One breathless second they looked at the burning room together from the safe vantage ground of the grass plot at the side.
Then Mr. Gillet started forward again.
“I’ve left my coat,” he said.