A chariot was at the guest-house door when Antonio called to enquire about Sir Percy's progress. At the horses' heads stood Jackson waiting. Rugs, portmanteaux, and a brass-clamped trunk had already been strapped in their places. "H'llo!" sang out young Crowberry's light voice from the top of the steps. "You're the very man we were coming to see. We were coming to say good-bye." "You and your father?" "I and my father and Sir Percy. We're off to Lisbon. The doctor from Navares was here all yesterday afternoon. Seemed rather clever. He liked the way you'd dressed the hand; but he doesn't like Sir Percy's general health, especially his heart. So the guv'nor and I are taking him to the chief Lisbon doctor. We shall go to Oporto by sea next week--the guv'nor and I--and from there to London." He descended the bottom step; and, after marching off Antonio by the arm to a spot out of Jackson's hearing, he added: "Don't get the idea that I repent of helping to save the azulejos. We did the right thing. All the same, I'm not happy about it. In a sense we're to blame for Sir Percy's burnt hand. Hang it, he's a brick, after all! I couldn't stand pain like that. He doesn't give a single moan. But it isn't Sir Percy who upsets me most. It's Isabel. I said she was all head and no heart. By Jove, think of it! No heart! Yet she's hardly left his bedside these twenty-four hours. She waits on him hand and foot; and sometimes the look in her eyes is just about as much as I can stand." "This Isabel certainly has a heart," said Antonio. "If she's unlike other people, it's because she has more heart, not less. I hope the Senhorita will not be fatigued by her journey to Lisbon." "She isn't going." "Not going? You don't intend to leave these ladies alone?" "No. We're leaving them in charge of a friend. Besides, there'll be Jackson." "The friend is a man?" "Quite. He's a man from top to toe. His name is Francisco Manoel Oliveira da Rocha." Before the monk could reply, they were joined by Mr. Crowberry, to whom Jackson had announced Antonio's arrival. "You're welcome, da Rocha," he said heartily. "This will save us an hour. We were meaning to call and see you on our way to Lisbon. Teddy has told you the news. We want you to be as neighborly as you can to the ladies. It will only be for eight or nine days." "I shall be happy to serve the Senhoras," answered Antonio. "Happy? So you ought to be. But you don't look it. Come, damn it all, what did you tell me yourself? The worst of the year's work is over; and you said you were going to study. My advice is ... Don't. Give yourself a rest. Run up here of an evening for a bit of music or a game of cribbage." "Or for a quiet pipe and glass with that Excellent Creature Mrs. Baxter," put in young Edward. "Do the Senhoras approve of this?" asked Antonio. "We didn't ask 'em," Mr. Crowberry answered. "But never fear. They'll jump at it." "And Sir Percy?"