where his walls
and chimneys had formerly raised their outlines. The house had jutted
awkwardly into the road, and the opening caused by its absence was very
distinct.

In the silence the trot of horses and the spin of carriage-wheels
became audible; and the vehicle soon shaped itself against the blank
sky, bearing down upon him with the bend in the lane which here
occurred, and of which the house had been the cause. He could discern
the figure of a woman high up on the driving-seat of a phaeton, a groom
being just visible behind. Presently there was a slight scrape, then a
scream. Winterborne went across to the spot, and found the phaeton
half overturned, its driver sitting on the heap of rubbish which had
once been his dwelling, and the man seizing the horses' heads. The
equipage was Mrs. Charmond's, and the unseated charioteer that lady
herself.

To his inquiry if she were hurt she made some incoherent reply to the
effect that she did not know. The damage in other respects was little
or none: the phaeton was righted, Mrs. Charmond placed in it, and the
reins given to the servant. It appeared that she had been deceived by
the removal of the house, imagining the gap caused by the demolition to
be the opening of the road, so that she turned in upon the ruins
instead of at the bend a few yards farther on.

"Drive home--drive home!" cried the lady, impatiently; and they started
on their way. They had not, however, gone many paces when, the air
being still, Winterborne heard her say "Stop; tell that man to call the
doctor--Mr. Fitzpiers--and send him on to the House. I find I am hurt
more seriously than I thought."

Winterborne took the message from the groom and proceeded to the
doctor's at once. Having delivered it, he stepped back into the
darkness, and waited till he had seen Fitzpiers leave the door. He
stood for a few minutes looking at the window which by its light
revealed the room where Grace was sitting, and went away under the
gloomy trees.

Fitzpiers duly arrived at Hintock House, whose doors he now saw open
for the first time. Contrary to his expectation there was visible no
sign of that confusion or alarm which a serious accident to the
mistress of the abode would have occasioned. He was shown into a room
at the top of the staircase, cosily and femininely draped, where, by
the light of the shaded lamp, he saw a woman of full round figure
reclining upon a couch in such a position as not t