'You are all right, aren't you, old man?' I said. 'You—you don't feel ill or anything of that sort?'
'Right as a skylark,' he said gaily, 'except that I am a bit tired.'
'You are sure, Jack, my darling?' said his mother, looking at him anxiously. 'Sure there is nothing we can do for you? Oh, I wish we were home!'
'Do you?' he said. 'I am not sure I agree with you.'
'Oh, but I do. You see, we don't know the Bolivicks very well, and—and—we didn't come expecting anything like this, did we, John?'
'Anything like this!' ejaculated Lord Carbis, 'anything like this!
Why—why,—Jack, my boy!'—and he rubbed his eyes vigorously.
'I am sure Sir Thomas and Lady Bolivick are only too glad to have you here,' I said, 'and nothing will be regarded as a trouble. Besides, I am not sure that your son does not want to be here. But tell me, old fellow, don't you think you ought to get to bed?'
A look of fear came into his eyes. 'No, not yet, not yet,' he said. 'I think I am afraid to go to sleep; afraid lest when I wake up I shall find that great black cloud lying at the back of my mind again.'
'Then wouldn't it be wise to send for a doctor? The man who lives here is not at all a bad chap;—you know that.'
Again he laughed gaily. 'I want no doctor. The little mother is all the doctor I want.'