"Do you really think, my dear, Mr. Thornton is of sound mind?"
"I am sure of it."
"My dear, you take a weight from my mind. Edith would have it that he did such strange things when she was here—write such oddities. I wonder what there is in those papers."
She stretched forth her hand; I drew away the papers from her reach, and said, quietly—
"There is nothing odd in these papers, Ma'am. They are merely about mineralogy."
"Mineralogy!" she exclaimed, eagerly, "my dear, if a lawyer were to see them he might detect what you cannot of course perceive—the scientific madness."
"The what, Ma'am?"
"'The scientific madness,' you deaf little fool," said the sarcastic voice of my grandfather.
Mrs. Brand jumped and I started. We looked round, he was nowhere in the room. He laughed ironically; we turned round and saw his head rising above the window-sill, on which his chin just rested.
"So," he said, addressing his cousin, "you are kind enough to trouble yourself about me in my absence. Eh!"