Gran. You must forgive me
and ask grandpapa to forgive me."

She stared at me with a pale face. In the pause there was a sound like a
heavy sigh; then the falling of a body.

"Bawn, Bawn, what have you done?" she cried, hurrying away from me to
the recess by the fireplace. "It is your grandfather. He has fainted
once before this afternoon, and the doctor says it is his heart. Oh, my
dear, my Toby, you have had too much to bear and it has killed you!"

She was kneeling by my grandfather and had taken his head into her lap.
He had struck the fender as he fell, and the blood was flowing from a
wound on his head, staining his silver hair.

Neil Doherty came rushing in. He must have been at the door to have
heard the fall. He took my grandfather in his arms like a baby--it
struck me sharply that he must have grown thin and light for Neil to
lift him so easily--and put him on the couch.

"Whisht, your Ladyship, whisht!" he said to my grandmother. "Fetch me a
drop o' water and a sponge, Miss Bawn. The cut's not a deep one. There's
nothin' wrong with his Lordship, and we needn't frighten the life out o'
him, wirrasthruin', when he comes back to himself. Don't tell any of the
women, Miss Bawn."

I got him the water as quickly and quietly as I could, and Neil washed
the blood away. The cut proved, indeed, not to be serious; but it seemed
an age before my grandfather's eyes opened and he looked from Neil's
face to my grandmother's.

"Have I been ill?" he asked.

"Just a bit of a wakeness, your Lordship," Neil said. "But sure, you're
finely now."

I did not dare come near, but waited out of sight, dreading the time
when my grandfather should remember. Presently I heard him ask for me.

"Is Bawn there?" he asked. "Where are you, child?"

I came forward and Neil withdrew. I heard the library door close behind
him.

"Poor little Bawn!" my grandfather said tenderly, "poor little Bawn! We
must bear whatever there is to come together, we three. God would not
have this child sacrificed. I see now what a coward I was."

"Never a coward, Toby, never a coward," my grandmother cried out
piteously, kissing his hand.

My grandfather put out his arm and drew me close to him.

"We must bear it together, we three," he said.

CHAPTER XXXIV

THE KNOCKING AT THE DOOR

We had dinner in the little black-panelled room off the hall, Neil
waiting on us with a great assiduity. Now that the worst had happened
and my grandfat