as anything of this
kind ever escaped you in intercourse with the boy?"

"Not a word--not a syllable."

"Has he himself ever, by a hint, or by a chance word, implied that he
was aware of--"

Glencore faltered and hesitated, for the word he sought for did not
present itself. Harcourt, however, released him from all embarrassment
by saying,--

"With me the boy is rarely anything but a listener; he hears me talk
away of tiger-shooting and buffalo-hunting, scarcely ever interrupting
me with a question. But I can see in his manner with the country people,
when they salute him, and call him 'my lord'--"

"But he is not 'my lord,'" broke in Glencore.

"Of course he is not; that I am well aware of."

"He never will--never shall be," cried Glencore, in a voice to which a
long pent-up passion imparted a terrible energy.

"How!--what do you mean, Glencore?" said Harcourt, eagerly. "Has he any
malady; is there any deadly taint?"

"That there is, by Heaven!" cried the sick man, grasping the curtain
with one hand, while he held the other firmly clenched upon his
forehead,--"a taint, the deadliest that can stain a human heart! Talk
of station, rank, title--what are they, if they are to be coupled with
shame, ignominy, and sorrow? The loud voice of the herald calls his
father Sixth Viscount of Glencore, but a still louder voice proclaims
his mother a--"

With a wild burst of hysteric laughter, he threw himself, face
downwards, on the bed; and now scream after scream burst from him,
till the room was filled by the servants, in the midst of whom appeared
Billy, who had only that same day returned from Leenane, whither he had
gone to make a formal resignation of his functions as letter-carrier.

"This is nothing but an _accessio nervosa,_" said Billy; "clear the
room, ladies and gentlemen, and lave me with the patient." And Harcourt
gave the signal for obedience by first taking his departure.

Lord Glencore's attack was more serious than at first it was
apprehended, and for three days there was every threat of a relapse of
his late fever; but Billy's skill was once more successful, and on the
fourth day he declared that the danger was past. During this period,
Harcourt's attention was for the first time drawn to the strange
creature who officiated as the doctor, and who, in despite of all the
detracting influences of his humble garb and mean attire, aspired to be
treated with the deference due to a great physician.

"If i