f
haggard face were quivering, and a sullen tear or two started down from
his closed eye.

'I'm--I'm a little nervous, gentlemen--I'll be right just now I'd like
to see the--the children, if they're in the way, that's all--by-and-by,
you know.'

'I've got Pell out, you see--not that there's any special need--you
know; but he was here before, and it wouldn't do to offend him; and
he'll see you this afternoon.'

'I thank you, Sir,' said Sturk, in the same dejected way.

'And, Sir,' said Lowe, 'if you please, I'll get this statement into the
shape of a deposition or information, for you see 'tis of the vastest
imaginable importance, and exactly tallies with evidence we've got
elsewhere, and 'twouldn't do, Sir, to let it slip.'

And Toole thought he saw a little flush mount into Sturk's sunken face,
and he hastened to say--

'What we desire, Dr. Sturk, is to be able to act promptly in this case
of my Lord Dunoran. Measures must be taken instantly, you see, for 'tis
of old standing, and not a day to be lost, and there's why Mr. Lowe is
so urgent to get your statement in white and black.'

'And sworn to,' added Mr. Lowe.

'I'll swear it,' said Sturk, in the same sad tones.

And Mrs. Sturk came in, and Toole gave leave for chicken broth at twelve
o'clock, about two table-spoonsful, and the same at half-past one, when
he hoped to be back again. And on the lobby he gave her, with a cheery
countenance, all the ambiguous comfort he could. And Lowe asked Mrs.
Sturk for more pens and paper, and himself went down to give his man a
direction at the door, and on the way, in the hall, Toole looking this
way and that, to see they weren't observed, beckoned him into the front
parlour, and, said he, in a low key--

'The pulse is up a bit, not very much, but still I don't like it--and
very hard, you see--and what we've to dread, you know's inflammation;
and he's so shocking low, my dear Sir, we must let him have wine and
other things, or we'll lose him that way; and you see it's a mighty
unpleasant case.'

And coming into the hall, in a loud confident voice he cried--'And I'll
be here again by half-past one o'clock.'

And so he beckoned to the boy with his horse to come up, and chatted in
the interim with Mr. Lowe upon the steps, and told him how to manage him
if he grew exhausted over his narrative; and then mounting his nag, and
kissing his hand and waving his hat to Mrs. Sturk, who was looking out
upon him from Barney's w