This explanation was more than sufficient for Mavis; she sympathetically praised him for his wisdom in dropping the silly old useless Council.

But it was later this evening, or perhaps one evening a little afterward, when something he said set her thoughts moving so fast that they rushed on from sympathy to apprehensive anxiety.

He spoke with unusual kindness about her family, and asked if she had suffered any real discomfort because of his having forbidden intercourse with all the Petherick relations.  She said “No.”  Then he said he had been actuated by the best intentions; and he further added that all his experience of the world led him to believe that one got on a great deal better by one’s self than if chocked up with uncles and cousins and aunts.  “So I should hope, Mav, that you’d never now feel the wish to mend what I took the decision of breaking.  I mean, especially as your people have mostly scattered and gone from these parts, that you’d never, however you were situated, wish to hunt them all out and bring them back to your doors again.”  Mavis dutifully and honestly said that her own experience had led her to similar conclusions.  She thought that relatives were often more trouble than they were worth, and she promised never to attempt a regathering of the scattered Petherick clan.

“You know,” he said, “if anything happened to me, you’d be all right.  I have made my will long ago.  There’s a copy of it in there,” and he pointed to the lower part of the bureau; “while th’ instrument itself lies snug in Mr. Cleaver’s safe, over at Manninglea.”

“Oh, for goodness’ sake, don’t speak of it.  I can’t bear even to hear the word.”  And then, taking alarm, she said he must be feeling really ill, or such things as wills would never have come into his head.  “Tell me the truth, dear.  Tell me what you do feel—­truly.”  And she asked him all sorts of questions about his health, begging him to consult a doctor without a day’s delay.

“Only a bit tired, Mav—­and that’s what I never used to feel.”

“No, you never did.  And I don’t at all understand it.”

“It’s quite natural, my dear.”

“Not natural to you.”

Then he took her hand, pressed it affectionately, and laughed in his old jolly way.  “My dear, it’s nothing—­just an excuse for slacking off now and then.  Remember, Mav, I am not a chicken.  I shall be fifty before th’ end of this year.”

He convinced her that there was no cause for her anxiety; and only too happy not to have to be anxious, she thought no more of this strange thing that her untiring Will now sometimes knew what tiredness meant.

But his lassitude increased.  He uttered no further hints about it to anybody; he endeavored to conceal it; he refused to admit its extent even to himself.  On certain days to think made him weary, to be active and bustling was an impossibility.  Instinct seemed to whisper that he was passing through still another phase, that presently he would be all right again—­just as vigorous and energetic as in the past; and that meanwhile he should not flog and spur himself, but just rest patiently until all his force returned to him.