'You do not even know, sir, whether Colonel Gainsborough is still living?'
'How should I? But he was as likely to live as any other man.'
'He did not think so.'
'For which very reason he would probably live longer than many other men. There is nothing like a hypochondriack for tough holding out.'
'Well, I must search New York for them this time, until I find them.'
'What possible occasion, Pitt?' said his mother, with a tone of uneasiness which Betty noted.
'Duty, mamma, and also pleasure. But duty is imperative.'
'I do not see the duty. You tried to look them up the last time you were here, and failed.'
'I shall not fail this time.'
'If it depended on your will,' remarked his father coolly. 'But I think the probability is that they have gone back to England, and are consequently no longer in New York.'