estate,
Miss, and if you let us we will visit the spot and make a note of what we
observe, that is, assuming that you admit waste, and merely question our
law.'

'If you please, sir, you and your Scotchman shall do _no such thing_; and,
bearing in mind that I neither deny nor admit anything, you will please
further never more to present yourself, under any pretext whatsoever,
either in this house or on the grounds of Bartram-Haugh, during my
lifetime.'

Uncle Silas rose up with the same glassy smile and scowl, in token that the
interview was ended.

'Good-bye, sir,' said Doctor Bryerly, with a sad and thoughtful air, and
hesitating for a moment, he said to me, 'Do you think, Miss, you could
afford me a word in the hall?'

'Not a word, sir,' snarled Uncle Silas, with a white flash from his eyes.

There was a pause.

'Sit where you are, Maud.'

Another pause.

'If you have anything to say to my ward, sir, you will please to say it
_here_.'

Doctor Bryerly's dark and homely face was turned on me with an expression
of unspeakable compassion.

'I was going to say, that if you think of any way in which I can be of the
least service, Miss, I'm ready to act, that's all; mind, _any_ way.'

He hesitated, looking at me with the same expression as if he had something
more to say; but he only repeated--

'That's all, Miss.'

'Won't you shake hands, Doctor Bryerly, before you go?' I said, eagerly
approaching him.

Without a smile, with the same sad anxiety in his face, with his mind, as
it seemed to me, on something else, and irresolute whether to speak it or
be silent, he took my fingers in a very cold hand, and holding it so, and
slowly shaking it, his grave and troubled glance unconsciously rested on
Uncle Silas's face, while in a sad tone and absent way he said--

'Good-bye, Miss.'

From before that sad gaze my uncle averted his strange eyes quickly, and
looked, oddly, to the window.

In a moment more Doctor Bryerly let my hand go with a sigh, and with an
abrupt little nod to me, he left the room; and I heard that dismallest of
sounds, the retreating footsteps of a true friend, _lost_.

'Lead us not into temptation; if we pray so, we must not mock the eternal
Majesty of Heaven by walking into temptation of our own accord.'

This oracular sentence was not uttered by my uncle until Doctor Bryerly had
been gone at least five minutes.

'I've forbid him my house, Maud--first, because his perfectly unconscio