About noon
Still nobody apprehended danger . Nobody really knew any thing about the matter except nurse , and she , with a selfish fear of being blamed for carelessness , resisted sending for the doctor till his usual hour of calling . In that large house , as in many other large houses , every body 's business was nobody 's business , and a member of the family , even the mistress , might easily be sick or dying in some room therein , while all things else went on just as usual , and no one was any the wiser . About noon even Elizabeth 's ignorance was roused up to the conviction that something was very wrong with Mrs. Ascott , and that nurse 's skill could not counteract it . On her own responsibility she sent , or rather she went to fetch the doctor . He came ; and his fiat threw the whole household into consternation . Now they knew that the poor lady whose happiness had touched the very stoniest hearts in the establishment hovered upon the brink of the grave .