"Why are you afraid of being ill? why do you imagine you are going to be ill? why should you fall ill any more than anybody else?"
I sat silent for a minute, then I said, "Ned, if I tell you, will you promise upon your honour not to laugh at me?"
"I won't, if I can help it. I don't fancy I shall feel inclined to laugh," he replied.
"And unless I give you permission, you will not repeat what I am going to tell you to anyone?"
"That I can safely promise," he said. "Go on."
And I went on. I began at the beginning and recited all the events chronicled in the preceding pages; and he listened, asking no questions, interposing no remark.
When I ceased speaking, he rose and said he must think over the statements I had made.
"I will come and look you up to-night, Patterson," he observed. "Go home to River Hall, and keep yourself quiet. Don't mention that you feel ill. Let matters go on as usual. I will be with you about nine. I have an appointment now that I must keep."
Before nine Munro appeared, hearty, healthy, vigorous as usual.
"If this place were in Russell Square," he said, after a hasty glance round the drawing-room, "I should not mind taking a twenty-one years' lease of it at forty pounds a year, even if ghosts were included in the fixtures."