igured. Once or
twice I wondered, in a heavy, senseless way, why they had not hanged me!

"When I went back to the Sanitarium, I was informed that the doctor had
returned half an hour since, and that he was in his own room anxiously
waiting to see me.

"I went into the study, and found him sitting close by the fire with
his head down and his hands on his knees. On the table near him, beside
Armadale's letter and my note, I saw, in the little circle of light
thrown by the reading-lamp, an open railway guide. Was he meditating
flight? It was impossible to tell from his face, when he looked up at
me, what he was meditating, or how the shock had struck him when he
first discovered that Armadale was a living man.

"'Take a seat near the fire,' he said. 'It's very raw and cold to-day.'

"I took a chair in silence. In silence, on his side, the doctor sat
rubbing his knees before the fire.

"'Have you nothing to say to me?' I asked.

"He rose, and suddenly removed the shade from the reading-lamp, so that
the light fell on my face.

"'You are not looking well,' he said. 'What's the matter?'

"'My head feels dull, and my eyes are heavy and hot,' I replied. 'The
weather, I suppose.'

"It was strange how we both got further and further from the one vitally
important subject which we had both come together to discuss!

"'I think a cup of tea would do you good,' remarked the doctor.

"I accepted his suggestion; and he ordered the tea. While it was coming,
he walked up and down the room, and I sat by the fire, and not a word
passed between us on either side.

"The tea revived me; and the doctor noticed a change for the better in
my face. He sat down opposite to me at the table, and spoke out at last.

"'If I had ten thousand pounds at this moment,' he began, 'I would
give the whole of it never to have compromised myself in your desperate
speculation on Mr. Armadale's death!'

"He said those words with an abruptness, almost with a violence, which
was strangely uncharacteristic of his ordinary manner. Was he frightened
himself, or was he trying to frighten me? I determined to make him
explain himself at the outset, so far as I was concerned. 'Wait a
moment, doctor,' I said. 'Do you hold me responsible for what has
happened?'

"'Certainly not,' he replied, stiffly. 'Neither you nor anybody could
have foreseen what has happened. When I say I would give ten thousand
pounds to be out of this business, I am blaming nobody b