"I am taking the Professor away," said she; "he is fidgety about the cold he caught."
Sir Willoughby stepped out to her. "I was trying at a bit of work for an hour, not to be idle all day."
"You work in that den of yours every day?"
"Never less than an hour, if I can snatch it."
"It is a wonderful resource!"
The remark set him throbbing and thinking that a prolongation of his crisis exposed him to the approaches of some organic malady, possibly heart-disease.
"A habit," he said. "In there I throw off the world."
"We shall see some results in due time."
"I promise none: I like to be abreast of the real knowledge of my day, that is all."
"And a pearl among country gentlemen!"