As to one, they were
quickly reassured, for Anne was in the porch feeding the doves, and
no sooner did she see them than out she flew, and was clinging round
Martyn's neck, her hat falling back as she kissed him on both
cheeks, with an eagerness that made him, as Clarence reported, turn
the colour of a lobster, and look shy, not to say sheepish, while
she exclaimed, ' Oh, Martyn! mamma says she never thanked you, for
you really and truly did save my life, and I am so glad it was you--
'
'It was not I, it was Ellen,' gruffly muttered Martyn.
'Oh yes! but papa says I should have been smothered in that horrid
mud, before Ellen could get to me if you had not pulled me up
directly.'
The elders came out by this time, and Clarence was able to get in
his inquiry. Ellen had had a feverish night, and her chest seemed
oppressed, but her mother did not think her seriously ill. Once she
had asked, 'Is it true, what Fanny Reynolds said?' and on being
answered, 'Yes, my dear, I am afraid it is,' she had said no more;
and as the Fordyce habit of treating colds was with sedatives, her
mother thought her scarcely awake to the full meaning of the
tidings, and hoped to prevent her dwelling on them till she had
recovered the physical shock. Having answered these inquiries, the
two parents turned upon Martyn, who, in an access of shamefacedness,
had crept behind Clarence and a great orange-tree, and was thence
pulled out by Anne's vigorous efforts.
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