"I—I did not hear a word of it. I've been in the castle with old Lady Calthorpe. I'm very much surprised."
There was something odd, shrewd old Shrapnell fancied in the expression of Cleve's eye, which for a moment met his. But Cleve looked pale and excited, as he said a word in a very low tone to Miss Oldys, and walked across the street accompanied by Shrapnell, to the doctor's shop.
"Oh!" said Cleve, hastily stepping in, and accosting a lean, pale youth, with lank, black hair, who paused in the process of braying a prescription in a mortar as he approached. "My uncle's not well, I hear—Lord Verney—at Malory?"
The young man glanced at Captain Shrapnell.
"The doctor told me not to mention, sir; but if you'd come into the back-room"——
"I'll be with you in a moment," said Cleve Verney to Shrapnell, at the same time stepping into the sanctum, and the glass door being shut, he asked, "What is it?"
"The doctor thought it must be apoplexy, sir," murmured the young man, gazing with wide open eyes, very solemnly, in Cleve's face.
"So I fancied," and Cleve paused, a little stunned; "and the doctor's there, at Malory, now?"
"Yes, sir; he'll be there a quarter of an hour or more by this time," answered the young man.
Again Cleve paused.