'Mary!' exclaimed the Carrier, supporting her in
his arms. 'Are you ill! What is it? Tell me, dear!'
She only answered by beating her hands together
and falling into a wild fit of laughter. Then, sink-
ing from his grasp upon the ground, she covered her
face with her apron, and wept bitterly. And then
she laughed again, and then she cried again, and then
she said how cold it was, and suffered him to lead her
to the fire, where she sat down as before. The old
man standing, as before, quite still
'I'm better, John,' she said. 'I'm quite well now
-- I --'
'John!' But John was on the other side of her,
Why turn her face towards the strange old gentle-
man, as if addressing him! Was her brain wander-
ing?
'Only a fancy, John dear -- a kind of shock -- a
something coming suddenly before my eyes -- I don't
know what it was. It's quite gone, quite gone.'
'I'm glad it's gone,' muttered Tackleton, turning
the expressive eye all round the room. 'I wonder
where it's gone, and what it was. Humph. Caleb,
come here! Who's that with the grey hair?'
'I don't know, sir,' returned Caleb in a whisper.
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