"He is there, Mr. Bladesden. If you must see him, you had better knock, for he may not like to be disturbed."
She went out at once, leaving the front door half open, and glancing back, as she passed it, at the tall, powerful man with the gray hair and side-whiskers, just applying his knuckles to the panel. There was something strange and even startled in her look, but she said no more, left him so and went on upon her errand.
The Quaker knocked twice or three times before there was any answer from within. Nor was the door opened even then, but the voice of the doctor said: "Come in!" and he entered. Doctor Philip Pomeroy sat alone in the room, in a large chair, leaning far back, his arms folded tightly on his breast and his head so thrown forward that he looked up from beneath bent brows. He evidently saw his visitor and recognized him, and yet he did not rise or change his position. And quite a moment elapsed before he said, in a voice frightfully hoarse:
"What do you want here, Nathan Bladesden?"
"I have business with thee, Doctor Philip," was the reply.
"And I do not choose to do business to-day, with any one, nor with you as long as I live!" said the same hoarse voice.
"And I choose that thee shall do business to-day and with me!" was the second reply, still equable in tone but still terribly earnest.
Doctor Philip Pomeroy unfolded his arms and rose slowly from his chair. The Quaker, as he did so and was thus thrown into a better light, saw that his face was haggard, that his sharp, scintillant eyes were wild, and that he looked years older than when he had beheld him last, four months before. Standing, and with one hand on the chair as if he needed support, he said:
"Nathan Bladesden, I told you, the last time that you visited this house, never to come near it again, and I thought that you knew me too well to intrude again uninvited."
"It is because I know thee very well indeed, that I have intruded, as thee calls it!" answered the Quaker, with what would have been a sneer on another face and from other lips. "I remember the last time I came here, Doctor Philip, quite as well as thee does, and I promised thee some things then that I am quite as likely to fulfil as thee is to carry out any of thy threats. Besides, thee may be sure that I have business, or I should not have come, for thy company is not so attractive as that men of good character seek it of their own will!"