‘I will stay here till the doctor comes,’ he said in a different tone. ‘Will you kindly send one of your servants to help me? It will be better to move the patient. His head is much too low.’
‘I can help you to do that,’ Maria answered. ‘I would rather help you myself. I am quite strong enough.’
Between them they raised the unconscious man, and propped him with pillows and cushions till he was almost in a sitting posture.
‘That is all,’ said the doctor. ‘You can do nothing more. I will see to the rest.’
She thanked him and went out quickly, and the servants made way for her with sorrowful respect, for they all loved her.
‘Go in and help,’ she said to old Agostino, and passed on.
She hastened to her own room and put on a hat and a coat, the first she could find, and she took money and went through the endless rooms to the hall. It was deserted. Even the footman on duty was with the rest. But she went straight to the door. Her feet moved mechanically and swiftly, and she felt that she was guided by a mysterious power which would lead her to her child without fail by the shortest way.
She ran down the first flight of stairs to the wide landing, and as she turned the corner of the great wall that divided the staircase she almost fell against Leone’s tutor, who was running up, two steps at a time.
‘Alone?’ she cried in utmost horror.
‘Leone is safe.’ He was almost breathless.