? Was it a deep and laborious plan?
Had he heard from Delphine of my coming and rushed to town for the
express purpose of returning in my company? It looked very like it. My
wire could not have arrived at the Vicarage until after five in the
afternoon, and the next train to town left at nine p.m. There was also
an early morning one at eight-thirty. My brain seethed with curious
questions, but there seemed only a moment's pause before I spoke
again:--

"Have you been staying in town?"

"Er--" his eyes showed a faint flicker of amusement--"not long. You are
going down to see Delphine, I suppose. That's good of you. She needs
bucking up. The Vicar's pretty bad, but with rest and change there's no
reason why he shouldn't pick up. We are arranging to make things easy
for them. It will do him no good if she makes herself miserable."

"That's the sort of futile remark that outsiders generally make on these
occasions. They make me furious!" I cried, glad of an excuse to work
off my self-consciousness in a show of indignation. "Perhaps it won't;
but as he belongs to her, and she loves him, she can hardly be expected
to be happy! In illness all the sympathy is lavished on the invalid.
In reality, the relations are more to be pitied. It's far easier to lie
still and bear physical pain than it is to be wracked with anxiety, and
fatigue, and responsibility all at the same time."

He said, looking at me with an air of the most profound attention:--

"You are thinner than you were. Your face is thinner--"

"We were not talking about my face. How long has Mr Merrivale really
been ill?"

"It's difficult to say. He is the sort of fellow who never thinks about
himself, and Delphine is not--not exactly noticing! I fancy she blames
herself now; but he never complained, and always went on working at full
pressure, till this attack came on, and he went down with a crash."

"And now? How does he seem now?"

His forehead wrinkled into lines.

"Depressed. Nervous. Inclined to be jumpy. He has lived for his work,
and hates the idea of giving up, even for a time. He has overtaxed his
strength for years, and his nerves are bound to play up. However, once
we get them off to the sun, he'll soon pull round."

"And when do they--"

"As soon as possible. It is Delphine who is putting things off. So far
as Merrivale himself is concerned, the sooner he starts the better.
He'll not grow any stronger where he is. W