'My poor little girl,' I murmured. 'Cry, darling. Cry, and you will feel better.'
Clare was always more obedient than Jane. She did cry. She broke suddenly into the most terrible passion of tears. I tried to hold her, but she pulled away from me and laid her head upon her arms and sobbed.
I stayed beside her and comforted her as best I could, and finally went to Jane's medicine cupboard and mixed her a dose of sal volatile.
When she was a little quieter, I said, 'Tell me nothing more than you feel inclined to, darling. But if it would make you happier to talk to me about it, do.'
'I c-can't talk about it,' she sobbed.
'My poor pet!… Did it happen after you got here, or before?'
I felt her stiffen and grow tense, as at a dreadful memory.
'After…. But I was in my room; I wasn't there.'
'You heard the fall, I suppose….'
She shuddered, and nodded.