It was morning when they arrived, and were driven rapidly through the streets toward home.

The house seemed very quiet; every window and shutter, so far as they could see, was closed, and both experienced a terrible fear lest "the strange woman" was gone.

They could not wait for Hannah to open the door, and so they went round to the basement, surprising Mrs.Dobson as she bent over the fire, stirring the basin of gruel she was preparing for her patient.
"The strange woman" was not gone.

She was raving mad, Mrs.Dobson said, and talked the queerest things.

"I've had the doctor, just as I knew you would have done, had you been here," she said, "and he pronounced it brain fever, brought on by fatigue, and some great excitement or worriment.