“When I move, yes,” Eloise replied, and then, as the full extent of the catastrophe burst upon her, she began to cry,—­not softly to herself, but hysterically, with sobs which smote both Howard and Jack like blows.

It was a novel predicament in which they found themselves,—­near midnight, in a thunderstorm, with a young girl on the ground unable to walk, and neither of them knowing what to do.  Howard said it was a deuced shame, and Jack told her not to cry.  Sam was sure to come with a lantern soon, and they’d see what was the matter.  As he talked he put her head back upon his shoulder, and she let it lie there without protest.

After what seemed a long time, Sam came up with a lantern.  The carriage was badly injured, he said, having been dragged through the avenue on its side.  Brutus had a gouge on his shoulder from running into a tall shrub; he had hurt his arm when he fell from the box, and the Colonel was not in a very pious state of mind on account of his damaged property.

Eloise heard it all, but did not realize its import, her foot was paining her so badly.  Jack had helped her up when Sam came, but she could not walk, and her face looked so white when the lantern light fell upon it, that both men feared she was going to faint.

“What shall we do?” Howard asked, standing first on one foot and then on the other, and feeling the water ooze over the tops of his shoes.

“Take her to the Crompton house, of course.  It must be nearer than Mrs. Biggs’s,” Jack suggested.

Before Howard could reply, Eloise exclaimed, “Oh, no, I can hop on one foot to Mrs. Biggs’s if some one helps me.  Is it far?”

The two men looked inquiringly at each other and then at Sam, who was the first to speak.  In the Colonel’s state of mind, with regard to his carriage and his horses, he did not think it advisable to introduce a helpless stranger into the house, and he said, “I’ll tell you what; did you ever make a chair with your hands crossed—­so?”

He indicated what he meant, and the chair was soon made, and Eloise lifted into it.

“That’s just the thing; but you’ll have to put an arm around each of our necks to steady yourself,” Jack said.  “So!  That’s right! hold tight!” he continued, as Eloise put an arm around each neck.

Sam was directing matters, and taking up the lantern and Jack’s umbrella, which he had found lying in the mud, he said, “I’ll light the way and hold the umbrella over you.  It don’t rain much now.”

“My hat and satchel, please,” Eloise said, but neither could be found, and the strange cortege started.

For an instant the ludicrousness of the affair struck both young men, convulsing them with laughter to such an extent that the chair came near being pulled apart and Eloise dropped to the ground.  She felt it giving way, and, taking her arm from Howard, clung desperately to Jack.

“Don’t let me fall, please,” she said.