ell, there were so many, that I scarcely can remember them. Let me
see: I have told you who the great man is, and the reason that brought
him to Flamborough. Then about the dangerous chill he has taken; it came
through a bitter ride from Scarborough; and if Dr. Stirbacks came, he
would probably make it still more dangerous. At least so Mordacks says;
and the patient is in his hands, and out of mine; so that Stirbacks
can not be aggrieved with us. On the other hand, as to the milkman from
Sewerby. I really do not know why he shook his head. Perhaps he found
the big pump frozen. He is not of my parish, and may shake his head
without asking my permission. Now I think that I have answered nearly
all your questions."

"Not at all; I have not had time to ask them yet, because I feel so
much above them. But if the milkman meant nothing, because of his not
belonging to our parish, the butcher does, and he can have no excuse.
He says that Mr. Mordacks takes all the best meanings of a mutton-sheep
every other day to Burlington."

"I know he does. And it ought to put us to the blush that a stranger
should have to do so. Mordacks is finding clothes, food, and firing for
all the little creatures poor Carroway left, and even for his widow,
who has got a wandering mind. Without him there would not have been one
left. The poor mother locked in all her little ones, and starved them,
to save them from some quite imaginary foe. The neighbors began to think
of interfering, and might have begun to do it when it was all over.
Happily, Mordacks arrived just in time. His promptitude, skill, and
generosity saved them. Never say a word against that man again."

"My dear, I will not," Mrs. Upround answered, with tears coming into her
kindly eyes. "I never heard of anything more pitiful. I had no idea
Mr. Mordacks was so good. He looks more like an evil spirit. I always
regarded him as an evil spirit; and his name sounds like it, and he
jumps about so. But he ought to have gone to the rector of the parish."

"It is a happy thing that he can jump about. The rector of the parish
can not do so, as you know; and he lives two miles away from them, and
had never even heard of it. People always talk about the rector of a
parish as if he could be everywhere and see to everything. And few
of them come near him in their prosperous times. Have you any other
questions to put to me, my dear?"

"Yes, a quantity of things which I can not think of now. How it