"I am satisfied!" exclaimed the doctor, shutting his book. "He shall
leave my house for Belton this very afternoon."

And so he did, In an hour, arrangements were in progress for his
departure, and I was his guardian and companion. Robin, as soon as
Dr. Mayhew's intention was known, refused to have any thing more to
say, either inside the house or out of it, to the _devil incarnate_,
as he was pleased to call the miserable man. If his place depended
upon his taking charge of him, he was ready to resign it. There was
not another man whom the physician seemed disposed to trust, and in
his difficulty he glanced at me. I understood his meaning. He
proceeded to express his surprise and pleasure at finding an
attachment so strong towards me on the part of the idiot. "It was
remarkable," he said--"very! And what a pity it was that he hadn't
cultivated the same regard for somebody else. A short journey
_then_, to Somerset, would have been the easiest thing in the world.
Nothing but to pop into the coach, to go to an inn on arriving in
Belton, and to make enquiries, which, no doubt, would be
satisfactorily answered in less than no time. Yes, really, it was a
hundred pities!"

The doctor looked at me again, and then I had already determined to
meet the request he was not bold to ask. I believed, equally with the
physician, from the conduct and expressions of young Harrington, that
the riddle of his present condition waited for explanation in the
village, whose name seemed like a load upon his heart, and
constituted the whole of his discourse since he had arrived amongst
us. It was there he yearned to be. It was necessary only to mention
the word to throw him into an agitation, which it took hours entirely
to dissipate. Yes, for a reason well known to him and hidden from us
all, his object, his only object as it appeared, was to be removed,
and to be conducted thither. I had but one reason for rejecting the
otherwise well sustained hypothesis of my friend. During my whole
intercourse with Emma, I had never heard her speak of Somerset or
Belton, and in her narrative no allusion was made either to the
shire or village. In what way, then, could it be so intimately
connected with her brother--whence was the origin of the hold which
this one word had taken of his shattered brain? I could not guess.
But, on the other hand, it was true that I was ignorant of his
history subsequently to the fearful death of his most sinful father.