arliest convenience.

Having taken the precaution--partly to save time, partly to accommodate
Betteredge--of sending my messenger in a fly, I had a reasonable
prospect, if no delays occurred, of seeing the old man within less than
two hours from the time when I had sent for him. During this interval, I
arranged to employ myself in opening my contemplated inquiry, among the
guests present at the birthday dinner who were personally known to
me, and who were easily within my reach. These were my relatives, the
Ablewhites, and Mr. Candy. The doctor had expressed a special wish to
see me, and the doctor lived in the next street. So to Mr. Candy I went
first.

After what Betteredge had told me, I naturally anticipated finding
traces in the doctor's face of the severe illness from which he had
suffered. But I was utterly unprepared for such a change as I saw in him
when he entered the room and shook hands with me. His eyes were dim;
his hair had turned completely grey; his face was wizen; his figure
had shrunk. I looked at the once lively, rattlepated, humorous
little doctor--associated in my remembrance with the perpetration of
incorrigible social indiscretions and innumerable boyish jokes--and
I saw nothing left of his former self, but the old tendency to vulgar
smartness in his dress. The man was a wreck; but his clothes and his
jewellery--in cruel mockery of the change in him--were as gay and as
gaudy as ever.

"I have often thought of you, Mr. Blake," he said; "and I am heartily
glad to see you again at last. If there is anything I can do for you,
pray command my services, sir--pray command my services!"

He said those few commonplace words with needless hurry and eagerness,
and with a curiosity to know what had brought me to Yorkshire, which
he was perfectly--I might say childishly--incapable of concealing from
notice.

With the object that I had in view, I had of course foreseen the
necessity of entering into some sort of personal explanation, before I
could hope to interest people, mostly strangers to me, in doing their
best to assist my inquiry. On the journey to Frizinghall I had arranged
what my explanation was to be--and I seized the opportunity now offered
to me of trying the effect of it on Mr. Candy.

"I was in Yorkshire, the other day, and I am in Yorkshire again now, on
rather a romantic errand," I said. "It is a matter, Mr. Candy, in which
the late Lady Verinder's friends all took some interest. You re