The major muttered something that was inaudible, and struck right across the park towards the house, by the lawn, while Sir John, feeling out of humour with his brother, with Rolph, and even with himself, went on along the carriage drive to encounter his prospective son-in-law after a few minutes, perspiring and panting after running fifteen hundred yards towards a mile. "Hullo! back?" panted Rolph. "Yes," said Sir John abruptly. "Well, what did he say?" "I'll tell you after dinner," replied Sir John sourly; "your training must be too important to be left." "What did he mean?" said Rolph to himself as he stood watching Sir John's retreating form. "Why, the old boy looks as if he had been huffed. Bah! I wish he wouldn't come and stop me when I'm running; he has given me quite a chill." Volume 3, Chapter II. THE STARS AT THE NADIR. "I will see him again, Mrs Alleyne, and try a little more persuasion; perhaps he will yield." "But are you sure you are right, Mr Oldroyd? I know my son's constitution so well. Would it be better to go to some specialist?" "My dear madam, I would advise you directly to persuade him to go up to town and see any of our magnates, but it would be so much money wasted." "But he seems so ill again!" sighed Mrs Alleyne. "He does, indeed, but this illness is one of the simplest of ailments. It needs no doctor to tell you what it is. Really, Mrs Alleyne, if you will set maternal anxiety aside for one moment, and look at your son as you would at a stranger, you will see directly what is wrong. It is only an aggravated form of the complaint for which you consulted me before." "If I could only feel so," sighed Mrs Alleyne. "Really, madam, you may," replied Oldroyd. "When you first called me in, you know what I prescribed, and how much better he grew. I prescribe the same again. If we set Nature and her simple laws at defiance, she will punish us." "But he grows worse," sighed Mrs Alleyne. "He devotes himself more and more to his studies, and it is hard work to get him out of the observatory. He says he has some discovery on the way, and to make that he is turning himself into an old man. Will you go and see him now?" Oldroyd bowed his acquiescence, and rose to go. "You had better go alone," said Mrs Alleyne, "as if you had called in as a friend. He is very sensitive and strange at times, and I should not like him to think that I had sent for you." "It would be as well not," said Oldroyd; and, taking the familiar way, he was crossing the hall, when he came suddenly upon Lucy, who stopped short, turned very red, turned hastily, and hurried through the next door, which closed after her with quite a bang. Oldroyd's brow filled with lines, and he drew a long breath as he went on to the door of the observatory, knocked, and, receiving no answer, turned the handle gently and stepped in, closing the door behind him.