I gather that the Yung-vrow Cornelia had
all the true Dutch obstinacy of nature. By and by she ventured
timidly, trying to make her voice sound as if she were only
fulfilling an ordinary call of politeness, to hope that my Lord
Walwyn was in better health. I told her a little of his condition,
and she replied with a few soft half-utterance; but before we had
gone far in our conversation there was a sudden commotion among the
sleighing party--an accident, as we supposed--and we both hurried
forward in anxiety for our charges. My sister was well, I was at
once reassured by seeing her gray and ermine hood, which I knew well,
for it was Mademoiselle van Hunker who lay insensible. It was not
from a fall, but the cold had perhaps struck her, they said, for
after her second descent she had complained of giddiness, and had
almost immediately swooned away. She was lying on the sledge, quite
unconscious, and no one seemed to know what to do. Her stepmother
and I came to her; I raised her head and put essences to her nose,
and Madame van Hunker took off her gloves and rubbed her hands, while
my Lady Newcastle, hurrying up, bade them carry her into the house,
and revive her by the fire; but Madame van Hunker insisted and
implored that she should not be taken indoors, but carried home at
once, showing a passion and vehemence quite unlike one so gentle, and
which our good host and hostess withstood till she hinted that she
feared it might be more than a swoon, since her father and sister
were already indisposed.
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