There was a pause.
'Sit where you are, Maud.'
Another pause.
'If you have anything to say to my ward, sir, you will please to say it here.'
Doctor Bryerly's dark and homely face was turned on me with an expression of unspeakable compassion.
'I was going to say, that if you think of any way in which I can be of the least service, Miss, I'm ready to act, that's all; mind, any way.'
He hesitated, looking at me with the same expression as if he had something more to say; but he only repeated—
'That's all, Miss.'
'Won't you shake hands, Doctor Bryerly, before you go?' I said, eagerly approaching him.
Without a smile, with the same sad anxiety in his face, with his mind, as it seemed to me, on something else, and irresolute whether to speak it or be silent, he took my fingers in a very cold hand, and holding it so, and slowly shaking it, his grave and troubled glance unconsciously rested on Uncle Silas's face, while in a sad tone and absent way he said—