There was a noisy crowd about him in the room--noisy even with the accompaniment of the continual thunder-peals; lodgers and servants, chattering, shuffling, and bustling, and annoying him equally by making too light of the tempest and by vociferating their alarm.

In the disorder, it was some time before a lamp was lighted, and the first thing he saw, as it was swung from the ceiling, was the white face of Mrs.Hudson, who was being carried out of the room in a swoon by two stout maid-servants, with Mary Garland forcing a passage.

He rendered what help he could, but when they had laid the poor woman on her bed, Miss Garland motioned him away.
"I think you make her worse," she said.
Rowland went to his own chamber.

The partitions in Swiss mountain-inns are thin, and from time to time he heard Mrs.Hudson moaning, three rooms off.

Considering its great fury, the storm took long to expend itself; it was upwards of three hours before the thunder ceased.