How still the room was as they listened breathlessly, how strangely the day darkened outside, and how suddenly the whole world seemed to change, as the girls gathered about their mother, feeling as if all the happiness and support of their lives was about to be taken from them. Oh, children, children, help me to bear it! Be calm, girls, and let me think. Oh, let me do something! The next train goes early in the morning. The horses are ready. Jo, give me that pen and paper. There is no need of that. On the way get these things. Hospital stores are not always good. Laurence for a couple of bottles of old wine. He shall have the best of everything. Everyone scattered like leaves before a gust of wind, and the quiet, happy household was broken up as suddenly as if the paper had been an evil spell. But the last was impossible. Brooke would have felt repaid for a much greater sacrifice than the trifling one of time and comfort which he was about to take. Thank you very, very much! The short afternoon wore away. It will do my brains good to have that mop taken off. The work put into it made it dear, and so on.