Chapter Thirty Four.
“Here! Hi! Hold hard!”
Pierce Leigh paid no heed to the hails which reached his ears as he was crossing Bedford Square one morning; but he stopped short and turned angrily when a hand was laid heavily upon his shoulder, to find himself face to face with Claud Wilton, who stood holding out his hand.
“I saw you staring up at Uncle Robert’s old house, but it’s of no use to look there.”
“What do you mean, sir?” said Leigh sternly.
“Get out! You know. Well, aren’t you going to shake hands?”
There was something so frank and open in the young man’s look and manner that Leigh involuntarily raised his hand, and before a flash of recollection could telegraph his second intent it was seized and wrung, vigorously.
“That’s better, Doctor,” cried Claud. “How are you?”
“Oh, very well,” said Pierce shortly.
“Well, you don’t look it. No, no, don’t give a fellow the cold shoulder like that. I say, I came ever so long ago and called on the new people here, for I thought perhaps she might have been to her old home, but it was only a fancy. No go; she hadn’t been there.”