'I beg you to be serious,' said the doctor, shaking his head; 'I question if he will recover this attack.'
'Oh, you are a capital hand at questioning; but what do you want me to do?'
'I want you'—said the doctor slowly; 'but you will promise me to be calm?' he said, laying his hand on the squire's arm, for he could not reach his shoulder.
'Now, don't be impressive,' said the squire, 'but out with it. I'll forgive him, send him anything, do anything for him but go there.'
'The very thing I wish you to do,' said the doctor.
'Pshaw, nonsense! What! turn out at this time of night, to see a man that you kill regularly with every full moon—not I. Now, doctor, you know I've no illwill towards him, old screw as he is—and that is not saying the worst of him. And as to poor little Marjory, I would do for her as for my own child; but I haven't forgotten how you served me before. I said then that while he lived I'd never darken the doors of Parker's Dew.'
'My dear squire,' said the doctor, 'I can assure you he was entirely innocent of that; I believe Bloodworth was at the bottom of it.'
'I wish he were at the bottom of the sea.'
'We can't spare him just yet, to go so far,' said the doctor drily; 'but now let me tell you, we have made a little progress into an important discovery. All Sir Valary's strange conduct, I think, may be accounted for. There is a mystery which we are beginning to unravel, and I hope with your help'—
'Come and have some wine,' said the squire. 'I unravel a mystery! cut it up, that's my advice.'