"Perhaps you can find out. Doctors can't ask indiscreet questions more than other people."
"And you think I can, or will?" In answer to which the physician merely shrugged his shoulders.
The lady drove away, her distaste for the task before her not diminished by the encounter. She was quite sure that the physician would not have made the allusions, which had fallen from him, unless he believed that the domestic status in the Morley mansion was of grave significance. Which, in fact, it was; a dark shadow loomed, ever larger, in the old house.
Leonard was very unhappy. Natalie's ignorance, in respect to his longings, her utter absence of sympathy; these formed the side of the shadow visible to him. He was irritable, at times harsh; but more deadly in its possible results was a sullen resentment, so deep that its ferocity and strength were unsuspected by himself. He was gazing moodily out of the library window when Mrs. Joe's equipage stopped at the door, and in another moment the lady was ushered in.
"What is it?" he asked shortly. His manner was divested of its usual graces. He looked moodily at the floor.
"Only a matter of business. Leonard, have you informed the Hampton people of the gift of which I spoke to you?"
"It has been mentioned."
"Leonard, I ought not to give it."
"You don't mean you have met with serious losses?" he exclaimed, impressed by her manner.
"No, no! But my views have changed; that is, I have made discoveries. Will it annoy you, personally, if the gift is not made?"