Barney bent over her.

"Now don't feel bad, Miss Crane," said he; "I sha'n't ever say a word about this to anybody." Sylvia made no reply; she lay there half gasping for breath, and her face looked deathly to Barney.
"Miss Crane, are you sick ?" he cried out in alarm.

When she did not answer, he even laid hold of her shoulder, and shook her gently, and repeated the question.

He did not know if she were faint or dying; he had never seen anybody faint or die.

He wished instinctively that his mother were there; he thought for a second of running for her in spite of everything.
"I'll go and get some water for you, Miss Crane," he said, desperately, and seized the candle, and went with it, flaring and leaving a wake of smoke, out into the kitchen.