“I never imply, Sir--I declare--I assert!” and his voice was, now shrill with passion. “It is no insinuation I make--it is an open declaration--that it is in what scandalous tongues have dared to allege against this young lady’s residence under my roof is the sole pretext you have to refuse your services here. Don’t deny it, Sir; I read it in your confusion half an hour ago. You intend to build a character for high morality on this event. You know this county better than I do, and you are a better judge how far your strict virtue will be remunerative; or perhaps you fancy that I will condescend to an explanation with you.” “No, no, Sir Within. You are too unjust--quite too unjust in all this.” The old Baronet never heard the interruption, but went on: “But, Sir, if I have scorned to make explanations to the first gentry of my neighbourhood, it is not likely I will descend to them for the satisfaction of a village doctor. Go, Sir--go! but at your peril one word to gratify the slanderous temper of your clients; for if I hear that you have dared to insinuate, however faintly--” The Doctor did not wait for him to finish, but hurried down the stairs, crossed the hall, and hastened to the stable-yard; and in a very few minutes the sharp sound of his horse’s feet on the ground declared that he was off at speed. Sir Within had sunk into the chair beside the door from which the Doctor had just issued, powerless and overcome. The outburst of passion, what had been but one exit of an overwhelming sorrow, had run its course, and now he sat there wretched and forlorn. Of his late altercation he remembered positively nothing. Something had occurred--something that excited and agitated him. The Doctor had said, or somebody had said, he knew not what; but it shadowed forth a sort of reflection on him--for Heaven knows what; and he wiped the cold perspiration from his brow, and tried to collect himself. At last he arose and rang the bell. “Will you tell Doctor Price I should like to speak to him,” said he, in his usual bland tone. “The Doctor is gone, Sir Within; he left the Castle half an hour ago.” He nodded; and the servant retired. After a little while he rang again. “Let Doctor Price know I wish to see him before he goes away,” said he, in a faint voice. “The Doctor left the Castle some time back, Sir Within,” said the man, in some astonishment. “Ah!--very true--I remember: that will do.” Once more alone, he tried to remember what had just occurred--but he could not; and, with weary steps, he mounted the stairs slowly towards the corridor where the sick chamber stood. “She is sleeping, Sir Within,” said the nurse, who sat outside the door to enforce silence--“sleeping, but dreaming and wandering on continually; and such strange things, too, she says.” “What does she talk of, nurse?” said he, scarcely conscious of what he asked.