"You thought it would be some other man?"
"Yes. But I am glad it is Dr. Bland. He—-"
"Is not so old as most of the old figure-heads in the county," said Dillwyn with a smile, who had suffered a good deal from the medical fossils in the surrounding neighbourhood since he came to Rickton. "Darkham sent for me first. I was the nearest, you know."
"Yes," said Agatha. "And the cleverest," she would have added had she dared to give her heart carte blanche.
"It was all very sad, and the poor boy so helpless. I am sure I am reading the riddle correctly when I say he ran to you to get you to come to his mother in her extremity—-"
"I wish I had gone," Agatha said quickly. She half rose. "Oh, perhaps I ought to go. Has she no woman with her?"
"She has two," said Dillwyn quietly. "You would be in the way if you went there now. Two nurses engaged by Darkham are in constant attendance on her. Don't distress yourself about that—and will you think of yourself a little now? If you won't, I shall think for you. You must go back to the house, and to your room, and try to sleep, if possible, for the next two or three hours."
"As for that!" said she—a faint laugh broke from her.
"You won't do what I tell you, then?" said he. He had taken her hand as if to draw it within his arm, but he held it now in his own whilst questioning her.
"To do what you tell me?" She reddened vividly.