"Now, Sir, tell them all about it,--and wait here; I shall want you presently." With which words he closed the door upon us, and returned to his patient.
Mr. Buckhurst refused the chair tendered him by Mac, and paced up and down the room in a state of immense perturbation.
"Well, I never!" said he, "well, I never! It taken me all aback, Sir," added he, turning to me. "Did you ever see anything like it? Why, he's jest like a gal! Dang it, Sir! my Molly a'n't half as nervous as he is. I hope he'll get well,--I raelly do, now. I wouldn't hev had it happen for I dunno what, now, indeed!" And he resumed his walk, repeating to himself, "Well, I never! Who'd 'a' judged 'twas a child like that?"
"May I beg to know what you refer to, Mr. Buckhurst?" asked Mac, with considerable impatience in his tones.
"Eh,--what? He's mighty delicate, a'n't he?" said the man, with his thumb indicating the next room.
"Very delicate indeed, Sir,--perhaps you can explain the cause of his present attack," said I, angrily; for I had begun to think, from Buckhurst's manner, that he had been guilty of some practical joke upon Clarian. I saw the fire of a similar suspicion blazing in Mac's eyes; and I fear, had our conclusions been verified, the worthy Mr. Buckhurst would have fared very badly at our hands, spite the laws of hospitality.
"What! did he never tell you? Of course not, though, being sick ever sence, and thinking me dead, too. Well, I'll tell you: but mind, you mustn't banter the child about it, for he can't stand it,--though it's only a joke. Might have been serious, to be sure, but, as things turns out, a pretty good joke, to my notion,--though I'm rael sorry he's been so bad about it."
Mac rose, removed his coat, and marched deliberately up to our guest. "See here, Sir," said he in his deepest bass voice, which his dark frown made still more ominous, "do you mean us to infer that you have been making that child Clarian the victim of any of your infernal jokes, as you style them?"
Buckhurst stared a moment, and then, seeming to comprehend the drift of Mac's words, burst into a hearty laugh.
"No, Sir!" he shouted, "the shoe's on the other foot, thank the Lord! The boy himself played the joke, or trick, whatever it was. Dr. Thorne tells me he was kind of crazy, from drinking laudanum, or some sech pisonous matter. Howsever that was, I'm sure he didn't do it in airnest,--thought so from the very first, --and now I've had a good look at his face, I'd swear to it"