It may, however, be questioned whether even when shaken to the undoing of his cravat and the loosening of his teeth he would have made the admission but for two considerations. In the first place, he had become warmly attached to his daughter, of whom, moreover, he was vastly proud, so that he had felt the deprivation when she had gone back to Axmouth; and secondly, he was aware that he was afflicted with an incurable complaint, and the thought of dying in solitude without a loving hand to smooth his pillow filled him with dismay. During the absence of Winefred he had thought much of this. 'Miss Jesse was wrong,' said he, 'in her allusion to my head of hair. I do not wear a wig. I have my hair dressed by a French barber before I leave the house, but it is my own hair. You may pull a lock if you doubt my word. I am positively not so old as some persons are disposed to make me. I may look a little aged――of late. I have had a trying life; and recent troubles of mind――relative to what the doctors have told me――have had their effect on me. May I ask you to favour me by pouring out the tea?' Presently he said, 'I like crumpets. They crunch like hard biscuits, but have no deleterious effect on the teeth.' 'Are you fond of hard biscuits, father?' 'Of Abernethies I have always been fond. I even enjoyed a ship-biscuit once, when the world was young, and when――when I first knew your mother.' He sighed deeply. 'Were you thinking of her, papa?' 'To be honest, of Abernethy biscuits. I did relish them. I shall never eat one again.' 'Why not?' 'Because my teeth are gone. I have at least some that are not my own. Miss Jesse would have shaken them into my mouth on to my tongue――had I not spoken. That, you see, would have been humiliating.' 'Father, you said something of being ill.' 'Yes, I am ill, but not very. That is to say I am threatened, but do not suffer seriously at present. I do not like to think about it, still less to speak of it――but to you it is another matter. You must know about it. When I came here I had some hopes. But the doctors afford me none. Let the subject drop. I have enough of that when alone, and at night. Then it haunts me and will not let me rest. During the day, and with company, I shake it off. I like crumpets. When I hear the crumpets crackle it carries me back to the time when I ate Abernethies and had no false teeth.' 'Tell me about your marriage with my mother,' said Winefred, desirous of drawing him from crumpets and Abernethies to matters of more enduring interest. 'Father, how was it that she did not take your name?'