ng out with Marner, and followed by Mr. Crackenthorp and
Godfrey. "Get me a pair of thick boots, Godfrey, will you? And stay,
let somebody run to Winthrop's and fetch Dolly--she's the best woman to
get. Ben was here himself before supper; is he gone?"

"Yes, sir, I met him," said Marner; "but I couldn't stop to tell him
anything, only I said I was going for the doctor, and he said the
doctor was at the Squire's. And I made haste and ran, and there was
nobody to be seen at the back o' the house, and so I went in to where
the company was."

The child, no longer distracted by the bright light and the smiling
women's faces, began to cry and call for "mammy", though always
clinging to Marner, who had apparently won her thorough confidence.
Godfrey had come back with the boots, and felt the cry as if some fibre
were drawn tight within him.

"I'll go," he said, hastily, eager for some movement; "I'll go and
fetch the woman--Mrs. Winthrop."

"Oh, pooh--send somebody else," said uncle Kimble, hurrying away with
Marner.

"You'll let me know if I can be of any use, Kimble," said Mr.
Crackenthorp. But the doctor was out of hearing.

Godfrey, too, had disappeared: he was gone to snatch his hat and coat,
having just reflection enough to remember that he must not look like a
madman; but he rushed out of the house into the snow without heeding
his thin shoes.

In a few minutes he was on his rapid way to the Stone-pits by the side
of Dolly, who, though feeling that she was entirely in her place in
encountering cold and snow on an errand of mercy, was much concerned at
a young gentleman's getting his feet wet under a like impulse.

"You'd a deal better go back, sir," said Dolly, with respectful
compassion. "You've no call to catch cold; and I'd ask you if you'd be
so good as tell my husband to come, on your way back--he's at the
Rainbow, I doubt--if you found him anyway sober enough to be o' use.
Or else, there's Mrs. Snell 'ud happen send the boy up to fetch and
carry, for there may be things wanted from the doctor's."

"No, I'll stay, now I'm once out--I'll stay outside here," said
Godfrey, when they came opposite Marner's cottage. "You can come and
tell me if I can do anything."

"Well, sir, you're very good: you've a tender heart," said Dolly, going
to the door.

Godfrey was too painfully preoccupied to feel a twinge of self-reproach
at this undeserved praise. He walked up and down, unconscious that he
was plun