He did walk up; he did see the lights in the drawing-room windows; and he did try, with the result of finding himself upon the drawing-room carpet a minute after, standing at the side of Agnes, and chatting to Miss Charity.
"How is your father?" asked Tom, seeing the study untenanted.
"Not at all well, I think; he had an accident to-day. Didn't you hear?"
"Accident! No, I didn't."
"Oh! yes. Somehow, when Lord Verney and the other people were coming up here to-day, he was going to meet them, and among them they overturned his bath-chair, and I don't know really who's to blame. Captain Shrapnell says he saved his life; but, however it happened, he was upset and very much shaken. I see you laughing, Thomas Sedley! What on earth can you see in it to laugh at? It's so exactly like Agnes—she laughed! you did, indeed, Agnes, and if I had not seen it, with my own eyes, I could not have believed it!"
"I knew papa was not hurt, and I could not help laughing, if you put me to death for it, and they say he drove over Lord Verney's foot."
"That would not break my heart," said Sedley. "Did you hear the particulars from Cleve?"
"No, I did not see Mr. Verney to speak to, since the accident," said Miss Charity. "By-the-by, who was the tall, good-looking girl, in the seal-skin coat, he was talking to all the way to the jetty? I think she was Lady Wimbledon's daughter."
"So she was; has she rather large blue eyes?"
"Yes."