'
Uncle Silas rose up with the same glassy smile and scowl, in token that the
interview was ended.
'Good-bye, sir,' said Doctor Bryerly, with a sad and thoughtful air, and
hesitating for a moment, he said to me, 'Do you think, Miss, you could
afford me a word in the hall?'
'Not a word, sir,' snarled Uncle Silas, with a white flash from his eyes.
There was a pause.
'Sit where you are, Maud.'
Another pause.
'If you have anything to say to my ward, sir, you will please to say it
_here_.'
Doctor Bryerly's dark and homely face was turned on me with an expression
of unspeakable compassion.
'I was going to say, that if you think of any way in which I can be of the
least service, Miss, I'm ready to act, that's all; mind, _any_ way.'
He hesitated, looking at me with the same expression as if he had something
more to say; but he only repeated--
'That's all, Miss.'
'Won't you shake hands, Doctor Bryerly, before you go?' I said, eagerly
approaching him.
Without a smile, with the same sad anxiety in his face, with his mind, as
it seemed to me, on something else, and irresolute whether to speak it or
be silent, he took my fingers in a very cold hand, and holding it so, and
slowly shaking it, his grave and troubled glance unconsciously rested on
Uncle Silas's face, while in a sad tone and absent way he said--
'Good-bye, Miss.
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