"No, no! You mustn't! You mustn't! I should go mad. Let me lie
still. Some one will come. If they don't, let me just die quietly
here. Don't move! _Don't_ shake me! I can't bear it. I shall die
straight off."

There seemed nothing to be done but to soothe and sympathise, sitting as
still as possible, stroking Norah's hair, and striving to shield her
from the biting wind. The short-sighted eyes looked quite different
bereft of their glittering glasses. The aggressive expression had given
place to one of pitiful appeal. Norah had never before experienced
severe physical pain; it seemed to her like some savage monster lying in
wait to grip her with its claws. She lay with her eyes strained on
Dreda's face, feeling herself in Dreda's power, terrified lest Dreda
should fail her in her need.

"Dreda, am I heavy? Does it tire you to hold me? I've read that people
get cramped sitting in one position--that it hurts like a real pain.
Oh, Dreda, but it can't be like my pain! Something terrible has
happened to my leg. It is broken--or fractured. You can't imagine how
it feels. The least movement seems to stab through my whole body. Even
if you _do_ get cramped, Dreda, will you promise me to sit still--not to
move or shake me until some one comes?"

Dreda hesitated miserably.

"I'll try, Norah. I _will_ try! I can't bear to say no when you ask
me, but I feel as if it were wrong to promise. It _can't_ be good for
you to _lie_ here in the cold and the damp. And you ought to see a
doctor at once. You will have to be moved some time, and it is bound to
hurt. Couldn't you make up your mind and be very, very brave, and let
me put you down and run for help _now_? Indeed, indeed it would be
best!"

But poor Norah did not feel at all brave. She shuddered and cried, and
clutched Dreda tight with her trembling hands, so that it seemed
impossible to deny her request.

The time seemed terribly slow, the wind grew colder and colder, and a
thin grey mist began to spread over the meadows. Dreda turned up the
collar of her coat, but even that slight movement brought a groan of
pain from Norah's lips and a piteous plea to keep still. She set her
teeth hard in the effort to refrain from trembling. Her feet were
alternately numb and tingling with "pins and needles," but still no sign
of a living creature could be seen. After an hour had passed by Dreda
was almost more miserable than Norah, who had passed into