"May I tell your uncle this, Lord Vail?" asked the doctor presently. "If his agitation returns, I can think of nothing which would so much tend to soothe it as the assurance that these accusations are to you absolutely void and empty. These vile accusations," he added in a moment.
"Yes, they are vile," said Harry, half to himself.
"May I then use my discretion to tell him so, if I think it desirable?" asked the doctor, pressing his point. "It would be better, I think, for me to tell him than you. That would be agitating work for both of you," he said, watching the lad closely.
"Oh, you may tell him whatever you damn please!" cried Harry, with the sudden petulance of nerves utterly overwrought.
Instantly the doctor's face changed. The symptom for which he had been waiting had come.
"Now, then, Lord Vail," he said, with a peremptoriness which startled Harry, "I do not want two patients instead of one. You were on the verge of hysterics, let me tell you. We will have none of that, please."
This treatment was shrewd and prompt. Judging rapidly and correctly, he saw that any word of sympathy or kindness would be likely to throw Harry altogether off the balance, and he was justified when, in answer to this rough speech, he saw an angry flush spring to his face.
"I am not accustomed to be spoken to like that," he said hotly.
"No, it was a liberty on my part," said the doctor. "Please excuse it. But I think you will acknowledge that I was right. You are your own man again now."
Harry considered this a moment, then smiled.
"Yes, you were perfectly right," he said candidly. "But I have had rather a trying time to-day."
"Indeed you have, and I may say now that I am very sorry for you. I recommend you therefore to go to bed, and not to write to your friend to-night, nor to think what you will say to him when you do."
"And to go to sleep very quietly and soundly till morning," said Harry. "Excellent advice, Dr. Armytage."
"Oh, you will do all these things if you follow my directions," said the doctor.
"To drink the dose I will send you up to your room," he said quietly.
At that moment, as if by a flash-light suddenly turned on, Harry saw himself again meeting at the lodge gates this man for whom, at first sight, he had conceived so violent and instinctive an antipathy, and simultaneously the curious adventure in the search for Dr. Godfrey shone in his mind. What if, after all, Geoffrey was right, and he himself was alone in this house with a man such as his friend had pictured Mr. Francis to be, and his mysterious confederate physician, whose ways were so dark? The suspicions which had seemed to him so utterly beyond the horizon of credibility leaped suddenly nearer. And when he spoke, though he tried to make no alteration in his tone, even to himself his voice sounded unusual.