midnight before
asked the fashionable physician , Sir -- -- , touched by the slight or this poor lady dying alone , with only a nurse and a servant about her . `` If she has , they ought to be sent for immediately . '' Elizabeth ran down stairs , and rousing the old butler from his bed , prevailed on him to start immediately in the carriage to bring back Miss Leaf and Miss Hilary . It would be midnight before he reached Richmond ; still it must be done . `` I 'll do it , my girl , '' said he , kindly ; `` and I 'll tell them as gently as I can . Never fear . '' When Elizabeth returned to her mistress 's room the doctors were all gone , and nurse , standing at the foot of Mrs. Ascott 's bed , was watching her with the serious look which even a hireling or a stranger wears in the presence of that sight which , however familiar , never grows less awful -- a fellow creature slowly passing from this life into the life unknown .