‘If you at all dislike being alone, you know—­’

‘Oh dear no, not at all, Sir Louis.  I am quite used to it.’

’Because I don’t care about it, you know; only I can’t make this horse walk the same pace as that brute.’

‘You mustn’t abuse my pet, Sir Louis.’

‘It’s a d——­ shame on my mother’s part;’ said Sir Louis, who, even when in his best behaviour, could not quite give up his ordinary mode of conversation.  ’When she was fortunate enough to get such a girl as you to come and stay with her, she ought to have had something proper for her to ride upon; but I’ll look to it as soon as I am a little stronger, you see if I don’t;’ and, so saying, Sir Louis trotted off, leaving Mary in peace with her donkey.

Sir Louis had now been living cleanly and forswearing sack for what was to him a very long period, and his health felt the good effects of it.  No one rejoiced at this more cordially than did the doctor.  To rejoice at it was with him a point of conscience.  He could not help telling himself now and again that, circumstanced as he was, he was most specially bound to take joy in any sign of reformation that the baronet might show.  Not to do so would be almost tantamount to wishing that he might die in order that Mary might inherit his wealth; and, therefore, the doctor did with all his energy devote himself to the difficult task of hoping and striving that Sir Louis might yet live to enjoy what was his own.  But the task was altogether a difficult one, for as Sir Louis became stronger in health, so also did he become more exorbitant in his demands on the doctor’s patience, and more repugnant to the doctor’s tastes.

In his worst fits of disreputable living he was ashamed to apply to his guardian for money; and in his worst fits of illness he was through fear, somewhat patient under his doctor’s hands; but just at present he had nothing of which to be ashamed, and was not at all patient.

’Doctor,’—­said he, one day, at Boxall Hill—­’how about those Greshamsbury title-deeds?’

‘Oh, that will all be properly settled between my lawyer and your own.’

’Oh—­ah—­yes; no doubt the lawyers will settle it; settle it with a fine bill of costs.  But, as Finnie says,’—­Finnie was Sir Louis’s legal adviser—­’I have got a tremendously large interest at stake in this matter; eighty thousand pounds is no joke.  It ain’t everybody that can shell out eighty thousand pounds when they’re wanted; and I should like to know how the thing’s going on.  I’ve a right to ask, you know; eh, doctor?’

’The title-deeds of a large portion of Greshamsbury estate will be placed with the mortgage-deeds before the end of next month.’

’Oh, that’s all right.  I choose to know about these things; for though my father did make such a con-foun-ded will, that’s no reason I shouldn’t know how things are going.’

‘You shall know everything that I know, Sir Louis.’