‘You know why my lord sent for me.’

‘And what if I do?’ Dr. Addington answered, looking thoughtfully through his wine.  ’To tell the truth, I do, Sir George, I do, and I wish I did not; for the news I have is not of the best.  There is a claimant to that money come forward.  I do not know his name or anything about him; but his lordship thinks seriously of the matter.  I am not sure,’ the doctor continued, with his professional air, and as if his patient in the other room were alone in his mind, ’that the vexation attending it has not precipitated this attack.  I’m not—­at all—­sure of it.  And Lady Chatham certainly thinks so.’

Sir George was some time silent.  Then, with a fair show of indifference, ‘And who is the claimant?’ he asked.

‘That I don’t know,’ Dr. Addington answered.  ’He purports, I suppose, to be your uncle’s heir.  But I do know that his attorney has forwarded copies of documents to his lordship, and that Lord Chatham thinks the matter of serious import.’

‘The worse for me,’ said Sir George, forcing a yawn.  ’As you say, doctor, your news is not of the best.’

‘Nor, I hope, of the worst,’ the physician answered with feeling.  ’The estate is entailed?’

Sir George shook his head.  ‘No,’ he said.  ’It is mortgaged.  But that is not the same thing.’

The doctor’s face showed genuine distress.  ’Ah, my friend, you should not have done that,’ he said reproachfully.  ’A property that has been in the family—­why, since—­’

‘My great-grandfather the stay-maker’s time,’ Sir George answered flippantly, as he emptied his glass.  ’You know Selwyn’s last upon that?  It came by bones, and it is going by bones.’

‘God forbid!’ said the physician, rubbing his gold-rimmed glasses with an air of kindly vexation, not unmixed with perplexity.  ’If I thought that my boy would ever come to—­to—­’

‘Buzz the gold-headed cane?’ Sir George said gravely.  ’Yes, doctor, what would you do?’

But the physician, instead of answering, looked fixedly at him, nodded, and turned away.  ‘You would deceive some, Sir George,’ he said quietly, ’but you do not deceive me.  When a man who is not jocular by nature makes two jokes in as many minutes, he is hard hit.’

‘Insight?’ drawled Sir George lazily.  ‘Or instinct.’

‘Experience among madmen—­some would call it,’ the doctor retorted with warmth.  ’But it is not.  It is what you fine gentlemen at White’s have no part in!  Good feeling.’

‘Ah!’ said Soane; and then a different look came into his face.  He stooped and poked the fire.  ‘Pardon me, doctor,’ he said soberly.  ’You are a good fellow.  It is—­well, of course, it’s a blow.  If your news be true, I stand to lose fifty thousand; and shall be worth about as much as a Nabob spends yearly on his liveries.’

Dr. Addington, in evident distress, thrust back his wig.  ’Is it as bad as that?’ he said.  ‘Dear, dear, I did not dream of this.’