"The child is tired; don't talk to her, Casement," said Mr. Grey.
"Oh! have you heard the news of Master Claude?" asked Mr. Casement. "He has been courting again; that's all. I never knew such a fellow."
"Nonsense; I never listen to such reports," said Mr. Grey. "I don't believe one word of it!"
"Very well—ask old Warde; that's all. It was he who told me," said Mr. Casement, persisting in his news because he saw it annoyed his old friend.
"I will never believe it; I know him better," said Mr. Grey.
"Well, well! I did not accuse him of any crime: did I, little woman?"
"Not at all, Sir," said Margaret steadily.
Mr. Grey looked at Margaret with a smile. He was re-assured by her calm voice, she no more believed the report than he did; so he turned the subject, and thought no more about it.
But his return home, to which he had looked forward with so much pleasure, did not produce the good effect he had wished and expected. He grew daily weaker, more unfit for exertion, either of mind or body. At last, when it became too great an exertion to leave his room, and when he was unable to sit up for more than a few hours in a day, he said to Margaret one evening that he had felt more languid than usual, "My child, I think you must write to Claude Haveloc. Tell him that I desire to see him without delay."