"Robert Audley, if you say another word to me, I shall knock you down,"
cried George, furiously; having said which, Mr. Talboys strode out of
the room, banging the door after him with a violence that shook the
house. Those inky clouds, which had shut in the sultry earth as if with
a roof of hot iron, poured out their blackness in a sudden deluge as
George left the room; but if the young man was afraid of the lightning,
he certainly was not afraid of the rain; for he walked straight
down-stairs to the inn door, and went out into the wet high road. He
walked up and down, up and down, in the soaking shower for about twenty
minutes, and then, re-entering the inn, strode up to his bedroom.

Robert Audley met him on the landing, with his hair beaten about his
white face, and his garments dripping wet.

"Are you going to bed, George?"

"Yes."

"But you have no candle."

"I don't want one."

"But look at your clothes, man! Do you see the wet streaming down your
coat-sleeves? What on earth made you go out upon such a night?"

"I am tired, and want to go to bed--don't bother me."

"You'll take some hot brandy-and-water, George?"