orrow, then, sir," said he, moving to the door.

"You 'll not dine with us? I think you might, though," muttered
Bramleigh, half to himself. "I'm sure Culduff would make no show of
awkwardness, nor would your sister, either--women never do. But do just
what you like; my head is aching so, I believe I must lie down for an
hour or two. Do you pass Belton's?"

"I could without any inconvenience. Do you want him?"

"I fancy I 'd do well to see him; he said something of cupping me the
last day he was here,--would you mind telling him to give me a call?"

"May I come up in the evening, sir, and see how you are?"

"In the evening? this evening?" cried Bramleigh, in a harsh, discordant
voice. "Why, good heavens, sir! have a little, a very little discretion.
You have been here since eleven. I marked the clock. It was not full
five minutes after eleven, when you came in,--it's now past one. Two
mortal hours, and you ask me if you may return this evening; and I
reply, sir, distinctly--No! Is that intelligible? I say no!" As he
spoke he turned away, and the curate, covered with shame and confusion,
hastened out of the room, and down the stairs, and out into the open
air, dreading lest he should meet any one, and actually terrified at the
thought of being seen. He plunged into the thickest of the shrubberies,
and it was with a sense of relief he heard from a child that his sister
had gone home some time before, and left word for him to follow her.

CHAPTER XXIII. THE CURATE CROSS-EXAMINED.

When the party returned from the picnic, it was to find Colonel
Bramleigh very ill. Some sort of fit the doctor called it,--not apoplexy
nor epilepsy, but something that seemed to combine features of both. It
had, he thought, been produced by a shock of some sort, and L'Estrange,
who had last been with him before his seizure, was summoned to impart
the condition in which he had found him, and whatever might serve to
throw light on the attack.

If the curate was nervous and excited by the tidings that reached him
of the Colonel's state, the examination to which he was submitted served
little to restore calm to his system. Question after question poured
in. Sometimes two or three would speak together, and all--except
Ellen--accosted him in a tone that seemed half to make him chargeable
with the whole calamity. When asked to tell of what they had been
conversing, and that he mentioned how Colonel Bramleigh had adverted
to matters of fa