‘You tell him,’ he said to Mr. Namby, and then turned his back upon them both, and leant against one of the pillars of the portico, with his face hidden.
‘My dear Mr. Piper,’ began the surgeon, tremulously, ‘something dreadful has happened.’
‘I know it,’ answered Piper, curtly.
‘You have seen a great deal of domestic trouble—your first wife’s long illness; but—I—I fear this is worse than anything you have had to go through.’
‘It is,’ said Piper.
‘But how is this?’ asked the surgeon, with a puzzled air. ‘Has any messenger come on to you? Have you heard——?’
‘Have I heard of what?’
‘The accident in the hunting-field, Mrs. Piper’s fall?’
‘Oh, she has had a fall, has she?’ said Mr. Piper, with a most extraordinary coolness.
Mr. Namby thought he had gone suddenly mad.