"You can give us no hope that by-and-by he may be in a better state than now?"
"Yes, very possibly. He has been brought to his present state by long pressure of worry. No doubt about that," in reply to Nigel's surprised look. "Your father has gone about for months under a heavy burden."
"Since when?"
"Soon after you left England, if not before. I think I was particularly struck with it about last Christmas. He has had a look of trouble more or less for years; but not to the same extent. For months he has been like one under a heavy cloud, unable to rise above it."
"What cloud?" Nigel seemed bewildered.
"That is the question."
"One would say there was hardly a man in Newton Bury with less to worry him than Browning has," remarked Mr. Carden-Cox. "But—"
The "but" was significant. Dr. Duncan cleared his throat, and looked at Nigel, who was studying them both.
"I am not sure that you do not know more about the matter than I do," said Nigel. "I have been away for a year, you see, and before that—"
"It did not exist to the same extent before that."