'Well, Sir, I could not hear more than a word now and a sentince again; and pickin' what meaning I could out of what Miss Lake said, and the capting could not deny, I do suspeck, Sir, most serious, as how they have put Mr. Mark Wylder into a mad-house; and that's how I think it's gone with him; an' you'll never see him out again if the capting has his will.' 'Do you mean to say you actually think he's shut up in a madhouse at this moment?' demanded the attorney; his little pink eyes opened quite round, and his lank cheeks and tall forehead flushed, at the rush of wild ideas that whirred round him, like a covey of birds at the startling suggestion. The butler nodded gloomily. Larkin continued to stare on him in silence, with his round eyes, for some seconds after. 'In a _mad_-house! Pooh, pooh! incredible! Pooh! impossible--_quite_ impossible. Did either Miss Lake or the captain use the word mad-house?' 'Well, no.' Or any other word--lunatic asylum, or a--bedlam, or--or _any_ other word meaning the same thing?' 'Well, I can't say, Sir, as I remember; but I rayther think not. I only know for certain, I took it so; and I do believe as how Mr. Mark Wylder is confined in a mad-house, and the captain knows all about it, and won't do nothing to get him out.' 'H'm--very odd--very strange; but it is only from the general tenor of what passed, by a sort of guess work, you have arrived at that conclusion?' Larcom assented. 'Well, Mr. Larcom, I think you have been led into an erroneous conclusion. Indeed, I may mention I have reason to think so--in fact, to _know_ that such is the case. What you mention to me, you know, as a friend of the family, and holding, as I do, a confidential position--in fact, a _very_ confidential one--alike in relation to Mr. Wylder and to the family of Brandon Hall, is of course sacred; and anything that comes from you, Mr. Larcom, is never heard in connection with your name beyond these walls. And let me add, it strikes me as highly important, both in the interests of the leading individuals in this unpleasant business, and also as pertaining to your own comfort and security, that you should carefully avoid communicating what you have just mentioned to any other party. You understand?' Larcom did understand perfectly, and so this little visit ended. Mr. Larkin took a turn or two up and down the room thinking. He stopped, with his fingertips to his eyebrow, and thought more. Then he took another turn, and stopped again, and threw back his head, and gazed for a while on the ceiling, and then he stood for a time at the window, with his lip between his finger and thumb.