The invalid nodded his head.
“Yes, yes, yes!” he said; but there was a vacant smile upon his face, and it seemed as if the words were uttered mechanically.
“And are you glad to see me, dear uncle?”
“Yes, yes, yes!” the old man answered in exactly the same tone.
Mrs. Darrell looked up hopelessly.
“Is he always like this?” she asked.
“No,” answered Miss Sarah, briskly, “he is only so when he is intruded upon and annoyed. We told you it was one of your uncle’s bad days, Ellen; and yet you are heartless enough to insist on persecuting him.”
Mrs. Darrell turned upon her sister with suppressed rage.
“When will the day come in which I shall be welcome to this place, Sarah de Crespigny?” she said. “I choose my own time, and seize any chance I can of speaking to my uncle.”
She looked back at the group she had left behind her, and beckoned to her son.