Perhaps he did not suspect me; or, perhaps,
he thought, not in his haste, all women are liars, and did not care to hear
what I might say. I rather lean to the latter interpretation.
The exchequer just now, I suppose, by some means, was replenished, for next
morning Dudley set off upon one of his fashionable excursions, as poor
Milly thought them, to Wolverhampton. And the same day Dr. Bryerly arrived.
Milly and I, from my room window, saw him step from his vehicle to the
court-yard.
A lean man, with sandy hair and whiskers, was in the chaise with him. Dr.
Bryerly descended in the unchangeable black suit that always looked new and
never fitted him.
The Doctor looked careworn, and older, I thought, by several years, than
when I last saw him. He was not shown up to my uncle's room; on the
contrary, Milly, who was more actively curious than I, ascertained that our
tremulous butler informed him that my uncle was not sufficiently well for
an interview. Whereupon Dr. Bryerly had pencilled a note, the reply to
which was a message from Uncle Silas, saying that he would be happy to see
him in five minutes.
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