here were no preparations for dinner; he could see that in the deepening
dusk. The fire had been evidently neglected, and was at an expiring
point.

"John!" he called, stirring the fire with a vigorous hand, whereby he
gave it the _coup-de-grace_, and the last glimmer sank to darkness.
"John, what are you doing?"

He fancied the convalescent had fallen asleep upon the sofa in the inner
room; but when he went in search of him, he found nothing but emptiness.
He rang the bell violently, and the brisk maid-servant came flying in.

"Oh, dear, sir, you did give me and missus such a turn!" she said,
gasping, with her hand on her heart, as if that organ had been seriously
affected. "We never heard you come in, and when the bell rung----"

"Is Mr. Saltram worse?" Gilbert asked, eagerly.

"Worse, poor dear gentleman; no, sir, I should hope not, though he well
may be, for there never was any one so imprudent, not of all the invalids
I've ever had to do with--and Hampton is a rare place for invalids. And I
feel sure if you'd been here, sir, you wouldn't have let him do it."

"Let him do what? Are you crazy, girl? What, in heaven's name, are you
talking of?"

"You wouldn't have let him start off to London post-haste, as he did
yesterday afternoon, and scarcely able to stand alone, in a manner of
speaking."

"Gone to London! Do you mean to say that my friend Mr. Saltram went to
London?"

"Yes, sir; yesterday afternoon between four and five."

"What utter madness! And when did he come back?"

"Lor' bless you, sir, he ain't come back yet. He told missus as his
coming back was quite uncertain, and she was not to worry herself about
him. She did all she could, almost to going down on her knees, to hinder
him going; but it was no use. It was a matter of life and death as he was
going upon, he said, and that there was no power on earth could keep him
back, not if he was ten times worse than he was. The strange gentleman
hadn't been in the house much above a quarter of an hour, when they was
both off together in a fly to the station."

"What strange gentleman?"

"A stout middle-aged man, sir, with gray whiskers, that came from London,
and asked for you first, and then for Mr. Saltram; and those two hadn't
been together more than five minutes, when Mr. Saltram rang the bell in a
violent hurry, and told my missus he was going to town immediate, on most
particular business, and would she pack him a carpet-bag with a couple of