He stopped; Lanfear breathed a gentle "0h!" and Gerald blurted out:

"Accident--grade crossing--Don't!" he winced at the kindness inLanfear's eyes, and panted on. "That's over! What happened to _her_--tomy daughter--was that she fainted from the shock. When she woke--it wasmore like a sleep than a swoon--she didn't remember what had happened."Lanfear nodded, with a gravely interested face. "She didn't rememberanything that had ever happened before. She really knew me, because I was therewith her; but she didn't know that she ever had a mother, because shewas not there with her. You see?"

"I can imagine," Lanfear assented.

"The whole of her life before the--accident was wiped out as to thefacts, as completely as if it had never been; and now every day, everyhour, every minute, as it passes, goes with that past. But herfaculties--"

"Yes?" Lanfear prompted in the pause which Mr. Gerald made.