Then he paused confusedly, remembering Clodagh's warning.
"But we'll see you laughing at it all before we're much older," he added, in awkward haste to make amends.
A gleam of something like irony crossed Asshlin's watchful eyes.
"I'm done for this time, James!" he said feebly. "I suppose I've had my day, and, like every other dog, must answer to the whistle. I don't complain! I'm getting more than my deserts in seeing you again. You're as welcome as the flowers in——"
His voice failed.
"I know—I know! Don't trouble! Don't try to speak!" Milbanke bent over him anxiously.
But Asshlin glanced back.
"Ah, but that's what I must do, James!" he said sharply. "That's what I want you for. I have something that must be said."
Milbanke turned to Clodagh.
"Is it right of him to excite himself?" he asked in distress. "If it's anything that you reproach yourself with, Denis——"