'
'It won't be very long,' I pleaded.
'No, dear,' he answered with a sigh.
I was tempted almost to question him more closely on the subject, but he
seemed to divine what was in my mind, for he said--
'Let us speak no more of it, but only bear in mind, Maud, what I told you
about the oak cabinet, the key of which is here,' and he held it up as
formerly: 'you remember what you are to do in case Doctor Bryerly should
come while I am away?'
'Yes, sir.'
His manner had changed, and I had returned to my accustomed formalities.
It was only a few days later that Dr. Bryerly actually did arrive at Knowl,
quite unexpectedly, except, I suppose, by my father. He was to stay only
one night.
He was twice closeted in the little study up-stairs with my father, who
seemed to me, even for him, unusually dejected, and Mrs. Rusk inveighing
against 'them rubbitch,' as she always termed the Swedenborgians, told me
'they were making him quite shaky-like, and he would not last no time, if
that lanky, lean ghost of a fellow in black was to keep prowling in and out
of his room like a tame cat.'
I lay awake that night, wondering what the mystery might be that connected
my father and Dr.
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