"You look pretty well."
"No man could be better,—not of my age. I'm sixty, you know."
"You don't look as though you were ailing."
"I'm always out in the open air, and that, I take it, is the best thing for a man."
"There's nothing like plenty of exercise, certainly."
"And I'm always taking exercise," said the earl. "There isn't a man about the place works much harder than I do. And, let me tell you, sir, when you undertake to keep six or seven hundred acres of land in your own hand, you must look after it, unless you mean to lose money by it."
"I've always heard that your lordship is a good farmer."
"Well, yes; wherever the grass may grow about my place, it doesn't grow under my feet. You won't often find me in bed at six o'clock, I can tell you."
After this Dr. Crofts ventured to ask his lordship as to what special physical deficiency his own aid was invoked at the present time.
"Ah, I was just coming to that," said the earl. "They tell me it's a very dangerous practice to go to sleep after dinner."