But whatever it was, he did not say it, for something happened.
Strange coincidences often occur in everyday life. One thinks of writing to a friend, and a letter comes from that friend, or a person may have formed the subject of conversation, and that person appears.
Somehow, just as the doctor had assumed his sternest look, the door of Vane’s little atelier was darkened, and Mr Deering stood therein, looking bright, cheery of aspect, and, in appearance, ten years younger than on the night when he upset the table, and the Little Manor House was within an inch of being burned down.
“Mrs Lee said I should find you here,” he said. “Why, doctor, how well you look. I’ll be bound to say you never take much of your own physic. Glad to see you again, old fellow,” he cried, shaking hands very warmly. “But, I beg your pardon, I did not know you were engaged with a stranger. Will you introduce me?”
“Oh, I say, Mr Deering,” cried Vane.
“It is! The same voice grown gruff. The weathercock must want oiling. Seriously, though, my dear boy, you have grown wonderfully. It’s this Greythorpe air.”
The doctor welcomed his old friend fairly enough, but a certain amount of constraint would show, and Deering evidently saw it, but he made no sign, and they went into the house, where Aunt Hannah met them in the drawing-room, looking a little flustered, consequent upon an encounter with Martha in the kitchen, that lady having declared that it would be impossible to make any further preparations for the dinner, even if a dozen gentlemen had arrived, instead of one.
“Ah, my dear Mrs Lee,” said Deering, “and I have never kept my word about the refurnishing of this drawing-room. What a scene we had that night, and how time has gone since!”
Vane looked on curiously all the rest of that day, and could not help feeling troubled to see what an effort both his uncle and aunt made to be cordial to their guest, while being such simple, straightforward people, the more they tried, the more artificial and constrained they grew.
Deering ignored everything, and chatted away in the heartiest manner; declared that it was a glorious treat to come down in the country; walked in the garden, and admired the doctor’s flowers and fruit, and bees, and made himself perfectly at home, saying that he had come down uninvited for a week’s rest.