-shaking.
"Well, no need to ask here either."

"No; I'm quite well, Doctor Instow."

"What! didn't they teach you to tell the truth at Daneborough, Jack
Meadows?"

"Yes, of course," said the lad sharply.

"Then why don't you tell it?" said the doctor.

"There, Jack, you see," said Sir John quickly.

"What! has he been saying that he is quite well?" cried the doctor.

"Yes; he persists in it, when--"

"Any one can see with half an eye that he is completely out of order."

"You hear, Jack?"

"Yes, father, I hear," said the boy; "but really I am quite, quite
well."

"`Quite, quite well,'" said the doctor, laughing merrily, as he sank
back in his chair. "Never felt better in your life, eh, Jack? Haven't
been so well since I doctored you for measles, ten years ago, when I was
a young man, just come to Fernleigh, eh?"

"I do not see anything to laugh at, Doctor Instow," said the lad
gravely.

"No? Well, I do, my dear boy--at the way in which you tell your anxious
father and his old friend that there is nothing the matter with you,
when the nature in you is literally shouting to every one who sees you,
`See how ill I am.'"

"Doctor Instow, what nonsense!" cried the lad.

"Indeed? Why, not ten minutes ago, as I drove towards the Hall, I met
the Rector, and what do you think he said?"

"I don't know," said Jack, fidgeting in his chair.

"Then I'll tell you, my lad. `Going to see young Jack?' he said. `I
don't know, but I expect so,' says your humble servant. `Well, I hope
you are, for I've felt quite concerned about his looks.'"

"But I can't help looking pale and delicate," cried Jack hurriedly.
"Plenty of other boys do."

"Of course they do; but in your case you can help it."

"But how?" said Jack fretfully.

"I'll tell you directly," said the doctor. "Look here, Meadows, am I to
speak out straight?"

"I beg that you will," said Sir John quickly. "I have sent for you
because I cannot go on like this. No disrespect to you, my dear Instow,
but I was thinking seriously of taking him up to some great specialist
in town."

"I'm very glad to hear you say so," cried the doctor. "If you had not,
before many days were over I should have sounded the alarm myself."

"Indeed!" cried Sir John.

"Yes; I should have presumed on our old intimacy, and told you what I
thought, and that it was time something was done. We'll take him up to
Doctor Lorimer, or Sir Humphrey Dean, or one of the other medi