So they fetched a coach; but the driver, seeing as he thought a dead man
brought out and laid in it, flung down the reins and refused to drive
them.

'I am well used to drive sick folks,' he said (indeed that was now the
chief use of hackney coaches), 'but a corpse I never drove and never
will.'

Althea, however, stepped in herself, and bade Will get on the box and
take the reins; then whispering to Harry, she told him where to find me,
and begged he would prepare me for her coming. 'I shall soon master this
knave's scruples,' she said; 'he is but bringing them to market, and I
am ready to buy them;' and as I suppose, she paid a heavy price for the
use of that coach for an hour, saying her man should drive it to her
house and then return it empty to the coachman.

For while Harry and I stood talking at the door, his tale was broken by
the rumbling of wheels; and the coach coming lumbering up, we perceived
Will to be the driver.

'That is well,' said Harry; 'it will not be known where you dwell.' As
he spoke the coach stopped, and Althea put aside the close-drawn
curtains. She called Harry to her, and said softly,--

'Now help me to lift him, good friend--but be very gentle; he lives, he
speaks, but he is deadly weak;' and with infinite care she and Harry
lifted out a poor shrunken figure that seemed light as an infant in
their arms; and I leading the way they brought it in and laid it on the
couch I had got ready; there Althea, sitting down, drew Andrew's head on
to her bosom, supporting him with her arms, and murmuring tender words