ghtfully pulling his great dark whiskers. Dark as they
were, they had yet a tinge of red in the fire-light. "It was a curious
thing; a very curious thing, that both brothers should die, as was
supposed, in Australia," said he. "Better--as things have turned
out--that Fred should have turned up afterwards, than John."

"I don't know that," spoke Jan with his accustomed truth-telling
freedom. "The pair were not good for much, but John was the best of
them."

"I was thinking of Sibylla," candidly admitted the doctor. "It would
have been better for her."

Jan opened his eyes considerably.

"Better for her!--for it to turn out that she had two husbands living?
That's logic, that is."

"Dear me, to be sure!" cried the doctor. "I was not thinking of that
phase of the affair, Mr. Jan. Is she in spirits?"

"Who? Sibylla? She's fretting herself into her grave."

Dr. West turned his head with a start. "What at? The loss of Verner's
Pride?"

"Well, I don't know," said Jan, ever plain-spoken. "She puzzles me. When
she was at Verner's Pride, she never seemed satisfied. She was
perpetually hankering after excitement--didn't seem to care for Lionel,
or for anybody else, and kept the house full of people from top to
bottom. She has a restless, dissatisfied temper, and it keeps her on the
worry. Folks with such tempers know no peace, and let nobody else know
any that's about them. A nice life she leads Lionel! Not that _he'd_
drop a hint of it. He'd cut out his tongue before he'd speak a word
against his wife; he'd rather make her out to be an angel."

"Are they pretty comfortably off for money?" inquired Dr. West, after a
pause. "I suppose Mr. Verner must have managed to feather his nest a
little, before leaving?"

"Not a bit of it," returned Jan. "He was over head and ears in debt.
Sibylla helped him to a good portion of it. She went the pace. John
Massingbird waives the question of the mesne profits, or Lionel would be
in worse embarrassment than he is."

Dr. West looked crestfallen. "What do they live on?" he asked. "Does
Lady Verner keep them? She can't have too much for herself now."

"Oh! it's managed somehow," said Jan.

Dr. West sat for some time in ruminating silence; pulling his whiskers
as before, running his hands through his hair, the large clear blue
sapphire ring, which he always wore on his finger, conspicuous. Jan
swayed his legs about, and waited to afford any further information.
Presently the doctor