"He must be waiting about down in the town--for news," said Louise, looking up from her work. "He ought to have been here to dinner, my dear," said the naturalist querulously; "it would have been some comfort. Tut--tut--tut! I cannot collect my thoughts; everything seems to slip from me." "Then why not leave it, dear, for the present? This terrible trouble has unhinged you." She had risen and gone to the back of his chair, to pass her arm lovingly about his neck, and he leaned back, dropping his pen to take her hand and play with it, pressing it to his lips from time to time. "I suppose I had better," he said sadly; "but I am dreadfully behindhand--four letters from the Society unanswered. I wish they did not expect so much from me, my darling." "I do not," said Louise, smiling. "Why should you wish to be less learned than you are?" "Had we not better go again to Van Heldre's now?" "I think I would leave it till quite the last thing." "Ye-es," said Vine, hesitating, "perhaps so; but I don't like it, my child. Van Heldre has always been to me like a brother, and it seems so strange and hard to be almost driven from his side. Doctor's like a tyrant, and as for Crampton--there, wait till the poor fellow is well again, and if we together do not give Master Crampton a severe setting down my name is not what it is." "You must forgive it, dear; he is so anxious about his master." "Yes, yes, of course," said Vine pettishly; "but the man is so insolently overbearing. Really, my dear, if he has been in the habit of behaving to Harry as he has conducted himself towards us, I do not wonder at the poor boy's intense dislike to the office routine." "It is not fair to judge him now," said Louise. "No, my dear, I suppose not; but it is very painful, when I feel as if you and I have quite a right in that poor fellow's bedroom, to be literally expelled, Madelaine siding with the doctor, and poor Mrs Van Heldre really utterly broken down." "We should only make matters more painful by interfering. Let us go and ask how Mr Van Heldre is about ten, and I will get Madelaine to let me sit up with her and help." "No," said Vine, rising and pacing the room, "I shall not sit down quietly. I feel that it is my duty to insist upon being there. I shall go up at once." "Wait till I put on my things, dear." "No; I shall only go for an hour now, and I will come back and fetch you later on." "But, papa dear!" "There, there, there! don't be alarmed, I shall not get out of temper with Crampton now. That will keep." "Then you will go--now?" "Yes," he said decidedly; "I cannot sit here." "But you hardly tasted your dinner. Let me get you some tea first." "My dear child, I can touch nothing; and pray don't oppose me. I am in such a state of nervous irritation that if you do I am sure I shall say something unkind, and then I shall be more upset than I am now."