thing that roused her was the dangerous illness of her brother
Clement, the result of blood-poisoning during a mission week in a
pestilential locality, after a long course of family worries and
overwork in his parish. Low, lingering fever had threatened every
organ in turn, till in the early days of January, a fatal time in the
family, he was almost despaired of. However, Dr. Brownlow and
Lancelot Underwood had strength of mind to run the risk, with the
earnest co-operation of Professor Tom May, of a removal to Brompton,
where he immediately began to mend, so that he was in April decidedly
convalescent, though with doubts as to a return to real health, nor
had he yet gone beyond his dressing-room, since any exertion was
liable to cause fainting.




CHAPTER II. A CHAPTER OF TWADDLE



The blessing of my later years
Was with me when a boy.-—WORDSWORTH.


When Mrs. Grinstead, on her nephew's arm, came into her drawing-room
after dinner, she was almost as much dismayed as pleased to find a
long black figure in a capacious arm-chair by the fire.

"You adventurous person," she said, "how came you here?"