"I canna do wi' another heavy cowd [cold] at my time o' life, and there's only one way for to stop it. There! That'll do, lad. Let's have a look at thee."
Herbert perched himself on a corner of the table. The vivacity of Silas astounded him.
"Thou looks older, nephew," said Silas, sipping at the whisky, and smacking his lips grimly.
"Do I? Well, you look younger, uncle, anyhow. You've shaved your beard off, for one thing."
"Yes, and a pretty cold it give me, too! I'd carried that beard for twenty year."
"Then why did you cut it off?"
"Because I had to, lad. But never mind that. So thou'st taken possession o' my house?"
"It isn't your house any longer, uncle," said Herbert, determined to get the worst over at once.
"Not my house any longer! Us'll see whether it inna' my house any longer."
"If you go and disappear for a twelvemonth and more, uncle, and leave no address, you must take the consequence. I never knew till after you'd gone that you'd mortgaged this house for four hundred pounds to Callear, the fish-dealer."