Victor straightened:  ‘Bad way of health, you said?’

’Mr. Jarniman spoke of his expectations, as being immediate:  he put it, that he expected her spirit to be out for him to meet it any day—­or night.  He desires it.  He says, she has promised it—­on oath, he says, and must feel that she must do her duty to him before she goes, if she is to appear to him with any countenance after.  But he is anxious for her in any case to show herself, and says, he should not have the heart to reproach her.  He has principles, a tear for suffering; he likes to be made to cry.  Mrs. Jarniman, his mother, he is not married, is much the same so far, except ghosts; she will not have them; except after strong tea, they come, she says, come to her bed.  She is foolish enough to sleep in a close-curtained bed.  But the poor lady is so exceedingly stout that a puff of cold would carry her off, she fears.’

Victor stamped his foot.  ’This man Jarniman serves a lady now in a—­serious, does he say?  Was he precise?’

’Mr. Jarniman spoke of a remarkable number of diseases; very complicated, he says.  He has no opinion of doctors.  He says, that the lady’s doctor and the chemist—­she sits in a chemist’s shop and swallows other people’s prescriptions that take her fancy.  He says, her continuing to live is wonderful.  He has no reason to hurry her, only for the satisfaction of a natural curiosity.’

‘He mentioned her name?’

‘No name, sir.’

Skepsey’s limpid grey eyes confirmed the negative to Victor, who was assured that the little man stood clean of any falsity.

’You are not on equal terms.  You and the magistrate have helped him to know who it is you serve, Skepsey.’

‘Would you please to direct me, sir.’

’Another time.  Now go and ease your feet with a run over the town.  We have music in half an hour.  That you like, I know.  See chiefly to amusing yourself.’

Skepsey turned to go; he murmured, that he had enjoyed his trip.

Victor checked him:  it was to ask whether this Jarniman had specified one, any one of the numerous diseases afflicting his aged mistress.

Now Jarniman had shocked Skepsey with his blunt titles for a couple of the foremost maladies assailing the poor lady’s decayed constitution:  not to be mentioned, Skepsey’s thought, in relation to ladies; whose organs and functions we, who pay them a proper homage by restricting them to the sphere so worthily occupied by their mothers up to the very oldest date, respectfully curtain; their accepted masters are chivalrous to them, deploring their need at times for the doctors and drugs.  He stood looking most unhappy.  ’She was to appear, sir, in a few—­perhaps a week, a month.’

A nod dismissed him.