Meanwhile they had passed the darkest part of the little ravine. They had passed the place where the waterfalls made the descent most arduous. They could even see below them a piece of the road lying white in the moonlight.
On a sudden Henrietta stopped.
“You must take the child,” she faltered, in a tone that startled her companion. “I can’t carry—it any farther.”
“I’ll take it. You should have given it me before!” the woman scolded. “That’s better. Quiet, my lad. I’ll not hurt you!” For the child, silent hitherto, had begun to whimper. “Now, miss,” she continued sharply, “bear up! It’s but a little way farther.”
“I don’t think—I can,” Henrietta said. The crisis over, she felt her strength ebbing away in the strangest fashion. She swayed, and had to cling to a tree for support. “You must go on—without me,” she stammered.
“I’ll not go on without you,” the woman answered. She was loath to leave the girl helpless in the wood, where it was possible that she might still come to harm. “You come down to the road, miss. Pluck up! Pluck up! It’s but a step!”
And partly by words, partly by means of a vigorous arm, the good creature got the girl to the bottom of the wood, and by a last effort, half lifted, half dragged her over the stile which closed the gap in the wall. But once in the road, Henrietta seemed scarcely conscious where she was. She tottered, and the moment the woman took her hands from her, she sank down against the wall.
“Leave me! Leave me!” she muttered, with a last exertion of sense. “And take the child! I’m—giddy. Only giddy! I shall be better in a minute.” Then, “I think—I think I am fainting.”
“I think you are,” the woman answered drily. She stooped over her. “Poor thing!” she said. “There’s no knowing what has happened to her! But she’ll freeze as she is!”
And whipping off her thick drugget shawl—they made such shawls in Kendal—she wrapped it about the girl, snatched up the child, and set off running and walking along the road. The Low Wood Inn lay not more than four furlongs away, and she counted on returning in twenty minutes.