“No, I have not been ill, but I have had a great shock,” was all he would answer to their anxious inquiries; and he took to his bed at once, saying that he must stay there till he grew better.
His first inquiry, on reaching the house, was for his letters, and he turned them over with a groan of disappointment.
“Has no one heard anything of Violet?” he asked, looking anxiously from Mrs. Shirley to Amber.
“Not one word,” answered Amber, quickly.
“Not one word!” echoed Mrs. Shirley, dejectedly.
“It is very strange!” he muttered, and his old gray head drooped dejectedly on his breast.
Some great trouble had surely come to him, they thought.
He declared that he was not ill; he would not have a physician summoned. He repeated over and over that he had sustained a great shock, and must have time to recover.
“Did your sick friend die?” asked Amber, carelessly, one day.
“Yes, he died,” replied the judge, and quickly turned the subject to something else.