"Oh, you have come," said she, presenting her cheek to her son; "I
thought that after all you might be detained by that mysterious case you
have at the hospital. Here's Dr. Rippon--and Julius too--dying to hear
all about it;" but she gave no hint of the serious conversation which
she said in her note she desired.
"Not I, Lady Lefevre," Julius protested. "I don't like medical
revelations; they make me feel as if I were sitting at the confessional
of mankind."
Noting by the way that Julius and his sister seemed much taken up with
each other, and that Julius, while as fascinating as ever, and as ready
and apt and intelligent of speech, seemed somewhat more chastened in
manner and less effervescent in health,--like a fire of coal that has
spent its gas and settled into a steady glow of heat,--he turned to Dr
Rippon, a tall, thin old gentleman of over seventy, but who yet had a
keen tongue, and a shrewd, critical eye. He had been an intimate friend
of the elder Lefevre, and the son greeted him with respect and
affection.
"Who is the gentleman?" said Dr Rippon, aside, when their greeting was
over.
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