Elsewhere Dr. Mannering heard what Henry Lennox could tell him as
they returned to the manor house together. He displayed very deep
concern combined with professional interest. He recalled the story
that Sir Walter had related on the previous night.

"Not a shadow of evidence--a perfectly healthy little woman; and
it will be the same here as sure as I'm alive," he said. "To think--
we shot side by side yesterday, and I remarked his fine physique
and wonderful high spirits--a big, tough fellow. How's poor Mary?"

"She is pretty bad, but keeping her nerve, as she would be sure to
do," declared the other.

Sir Walter was with his daughter when Mannering arrived. The
doctor had been a crony of the elder for many years. He was about
the average of a country physician--a hard-bitten, practical man
who loved his profession, loved sport, and professed conservative
principles. Experience stood in place of high qualifications, but
he kept in touch with medical progress, to the extent of reading
about it and availing himself of improved methods and preparations
when opportunity offered. He examined the dead man very carefully,
indicated how his posture might be rendered more normal, and
satisfied himself that human power was incapable of restoring the
vanished life. He could discover no visible indication of violence
and no apparent excuse for Tom May's sudden end. He listened with
attention to the little that Henry Lennox could tell him, and then
went to see Mary May and her father.

The young wife had grown more collected, but she was dazed rather
than reconciled to her fate; her mind had not yet absorbed the full