On coming up, he found both
the horse and its rider prostrate, the latter motionless and insensible.
He lifted her from the ground, and took her into a neighbouring house.
The usual restoratives were applied without effect, and it was not till
a surgeon appeared and bled the patient that any signs of animation
returned. It was discovered that the right arm and three of the ribs on
the left side were fractured. It was necessary that the utmost quiet
should be observed, lest any further and more dangerous injury might,
unknown to the medical man, have taken place.
Though, therefore, the whole party assembled near the house, they were
not allowed to enter it. Herbert insisted upon remaining with the
father, despite Mrs Hardman's repeated strictures on the impropriety
of his doing so.
Scarcely a week had elapsed, after the accident already recorded, ere
it became a matter of gossiping notoriety that the young squire of
Coote-down had fallen in love with the lawyer's daughter. In truth, he
had not stirred from the vicinity of the cottage in which Catherine
lay, that he might get the earliest information from the medical
attendants concerning her condition.
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