Читать книгу The Royal Regiment, and Other Novelettes онлайн

11 страница из 49

"I have but to deplore the occasion of it, my dear sir."

"But what is his ailment, doctor?"

"I can scarcely say—it seems to be a general break up of the whole system."

"At his years that can scarcely be."

"He has been sorely changed since you were last at Ardgowrie, my dear sir; and there seems—there seems——"

The doctor paused, and played nervously with his watch-chain.

"There seems what?" asked Roland, bluntly.

"Something that I scarcely like to hint at."

"How, sir?"

"Well, if you will pardon my saying so, he seems to suffer more from illness of the mind than of the body."

"Of the mind?" asked Roland, haughtily.

"Yes; as if some secret preyed upon him. I have watched him closely from time to time, for the last few years, and such, my dear sir, is my firm conviction."

"Your idea seems to me incomprehensible, doctor."

"There is a skeleton in every house," said the other with a simper.

"Sir, you forget yourself," exclaimed Roland, with haughty surprise. "What skeleton could be in ours?"

"Pardon me—I used but a proverb. Your father is awake now," he added, as a distant bell rang. And Roland, considerably agitated and ruffled by what had passed, repaired at once to the sick chamber.