'We got down from our horses, leaving them with the groom who had been riding out with us, and ran into the house. But we were met by one of the servants, with a face white with alarm, who begged us to go quietly upstairs, as our father was very ill, and the doctor said he was to be perfectly quiet. We asked her what was the matter with him, and she told us that as he had been riding home from the railway station, his horse, which was a young one he had just bought, had thrown him, and that he had been brought home insensible. More than this she could not tell us, but our mother came into our bedroom, and told us, with more feeling than I had ever seen in her face before, that our father could not live through the night.
'I shall never forget that night. It was the first time that I had been brought close to death, and it frightened me. I lay awake, listening to the hall clock as it struck one hour after another. Then I crept out of bed, and put my head out of the window. It was a close, oppressive night,—not a breath seemed to be stirring. I wondered what was going on in the next room, and whether I should ever see my father again. Then I thought I heard a sound, but it was only Lucy sobbing beneath the bedclothes.
'"Lucy," I said, glad to find she was awake, "isn't it a long night?"
'"Yes, Norah," she answered. "I'm so frightened; shall we have a light?"
'I found the matches and lighted a candle; but three or four large moths darted into the room, so that I had to close the window.
'We lay awake in our little beds watching the moths darting in and out of the candle, and straining our ears for any sound from our father's room. Each time a door shut we started, and sat up in bed listening.
'"Wouldn't you be frightened if you were dying, Norah?" said Lucy, under her breath.
'"Yes," I said, "I'm sure I should."
'Then there was silence again for a long time; and I thought Lucy had fallen asleep, when she got up in bed and spoke again—
'"Norah, do you think you would go to heaven if you were to die?"