f May's lamp, Alice, who had been to an ambulance class at
Micklethwayte, detected the extent of the cut, extracted a fragment of
glass, and staunched the bleeding with handkerchiefs and strips of the
girls' tulle skirts, but she advised her patient to be driven at once
to a surgeon to secure that no morsel of glass remained. Mr. Egremont,
gratified to see his wife come to the front, undertook to drive her
back to Redcastle. Indeed, they must return thither to cross by the
higher bridge. 'You will go with me,' entreated Lady Delmar, holding
Alice's hand; and the one hastily consigning Nuttie to her aunt's care,
the other giving injunctions not to alarm her mother to Annaple, who
had declared her intention of walking home, the two ladies went off
under Mr. Egremont's escort.

Just then it was discovered that the Delmar coachman, Robinson, had all
this time been lying insensible, not dead, for he moaned, but
apparently with a broken leg, if nothing worse. Indeed, the men had
known it all along, but, until the ladies had been rescued, nothing had
been possible but to put his cushion under his head and his rug over
him. The ladies were much shocked, and Mrs. William Egremont decided
that he must be laid at the bottom of the waggonette, and that she
would take him straight to the hospital.

They were only a mile and a half from Lescombe, and it was pronounced
safe to cross on foot by the remains of the bridge, so that Annaple,
who had a pair of fur boots, had already decided on going home on foot.
The other girls wanted to accompany her, and, as May and Nuttie both
had overshoes, they were permitted to do so, and desired to go to bed,
and wait to be picked up by the waggonette, which must return to
Bridgefield by the Lescombe road. Blanche, having a delicate throat,
was sentenced to go with her stepmother. Mark undertook to ride the
horse through the river, and escort the three girls, and Gerard Godfrey
also joined them. The place where he was staying lay a couple of miles
beyond Lescombe, and when Mrs. Elmore's fly had been met and turned
back by Mr. Egremont, he had jumped off to render assistance, and had
done so effectively enough to win Mark's gratitude.

It was by this time about half-past five, as was ascertained by the
light of the waning moon, the carriage-lamp having burnt out. It was a
fine frosty morning, and the moon was still powerful enough to reveal
the droll figures of the girls. May had a fur cl