"Yes," he said, "that would be a dangerous thing in the hands of some men who saw a life standing between them and a goodly property. But no, my pretty drops! You may go back again. Not for me. I am a lawyer, and I know the law. What idiots some men have been, and at what cost to themselves! But, then, they were not lawyers, and did not know the law. Now, then, for a good night's rest. And to-morrow. Hah!" Volume 3, Chapter X. A VISIT IN THE DARK. "I don't like it, Mary. North has completely shut himself up. He will not even see Mrs Milt, so she tells me, and she is getting very uneasy about his state." Mary looked up at her brother. She could not trust herself to speak. "I pity him, and yet I feel annoyed and hurt, for I gave him credit for greater strength of mind." Mary felt that she knew what was coming, but she dared not open her lips. "Of course it was very painful to find out the woman he had made his idol was trifling with him, but I should have thought that Horace North would have proved himself to be a man of the world, borne his burden patiently, and been enough of a philosopher to go on his way without breaking down." "But he is very ill." "Ill!" said Salis. "I feel disposed to go and shake him, and rouse him up. To tell him that this is not manly on his part." "And yet you own that he is suffering, Hartley." "Suffering? Yes; but he has no business to be suffering about a woman like--there, there, I am forgetting myself. Poor fellow! he must be very ill. You see, the upset came when he was worn out with the study and intricacies of that pet theory of his, and hence it is that he is now so low." Mary lay back with her eyes half closed for some time, and there was silence in the room. "Where is Leo?" said Salis, at length. "In her room--reading." "Thank Heaven she seems to be settling down calmly now. Surely this life-storm is past, Mary." "I pray that it may be, Hartley," she said softly; but there was a shadow of doubt in her words. "Well," said Salis, rising, "I must go and have a look round." "Going out, dear?" "Yes. I seem to have been very neglectful of the people lately." "Stop a minute, Hartley," said Mary, with a vivid colour in her cheeks. "You want to say something?" "Yes, dear; I wish--I wish to speak to you about Dr North." "Well, what about him, my child?" "Hartley, when we were ill, he was always here. No pains seemed to be too great for him to take." "Yes, no man could have been more attentive." "And now, Hartley, he, too, is ill--seriously ill." "Yes, I'm afraid so." "Then don't you think it is a duty to try everything possible to help him in turn?" "Of course, and I have tried; but what can I do? He will not see me, and that cousin of his, who, by the way, seems to have a great deal of business with Mrs Berens, evidently does not want me there." "But ought you to study that, Hartley, when your friend is ill?"