CHAPTER XXXVII.
WATCHING AND WAITING.
The next morning the pony-carriage stopped before the door of the curate's lodgings. When Grace went down-stairs to the parlor, Anice Barholm turned from the window to greet him. The appearance of physical exhaustion he had observed the night before in Joan Lowrie, he saw again in her, but he had never before seen the face which Anice turned toward him.
"I was on the ground yesterday, and saw you go down into the mine," she said. "I had never thought of such courage before."
That was all, but in a second he comprehended that this morning they stood nearer together than they had ever stood before.
"How is the child you were with?" he asked.
"He died an hour ago."
When they went upstairs, Joan was standing by the sick man.
"He's worse than he wur last neet," she said. "An' he'll be worse still. I ha' nursed hurts like these afore. It'll be mony a day afore he'll be better—if th' toime ivver comes."
The rector and Mrs. Barholm, hearing of the accident, and leaving Browton hurriedly to return home, were met by half a dozen different versions on their way to Riggan, and each one was so enthusiastically related that Mr. Bar-
