"What?" exclaimed Toney.
"Dying?" said the Professor.
"I fear it is so," said Tom. "I was at Colonel Hazlewood's house this morning when the newspaper was brought in. Claribel took it in her hand and was glancing over it when she suddenly let it drop; sat speechless for a moment; put her hand to her brow, and then, with a faint cry, sank senseless on the floor. She had seen the paragraph announcing the departure of Clarence and Harry. We lifted her up and her lips were discolored with blood. I fear that the sudden shock produced the rupture of a blood-vessel. She was carried to her room, and two doctors are in attendance."
"But what of Imogen?" asked Toney.
"She hastily snatched up the paper and glanced at the paragraph, and then it fell from her hand. She never uttered a word. I do not know whether that stately beauty is possessed of feeling," said Seddon.
"As much perhaps as the other," said the Professor. "Some women are like the Laconian boy, with the fox eating away his life. With them agony has no outward expression. They suffer and are silent."
"Women are enigmas," said Toney.
"They are like pigs," said the Professor.
"How so?" asked Toney.
"If you want them to go to Cork you must make them suppose you desire them to go to Kilkenny."