It was full daylight, and I got up and found that it was nearly seven o’clock.
The rain had stopped, but there was a scurry of low, threatening cloud that blew up from the south.
I dressed at once and went out. I made my way directly to the Stotts’ cottage.
The lamp was still burning and the door open, but Ellen Mary had fallen forward on to the table; her head was pillowed on her arms.
“There is a limit to our endurance,” I reflected, “and she has reached it.”
I left her undisturbed.
Outside I met two of Farmer Bates’s labourers going back to work.
“I want you to come up with me to the pond,” I said.