"Lucy!" he gasped out. "Is she ill?"
"All right! All right!" said John reassuringly, but in a quieter voice
than his usual jovial one. "Don't be frightened. But when she says 'Go
and fetch father,' you see, I come and fetch you directly."
Mr. Harker was not to be deceived by this attempt at a jest.
"She is ill!" he cried, the perspiration breaking out on his forehead.
John nodded.
"She is better now," he said. "But I should like you to come down at
once. We shall catch a train to Hampton Court, and I have a trap waiting
for me there." Without any further explanation--for after thinking the
matter over, he had determined that Lucy herself should break the news
to her father--he helped the old man, still trembling and shaking, to
put on his coat, and to lock up the office; and it was not until they
were well on their way, that John told him how he had found his wife a
fortnight ago, lying unconscious on the ground.
Mr. Harker's troubled face darkened, and his thin hands clenched and
unclenched themselves, for he knew Mr. Vermont only too well, and the
thought had already crossed his mind that this sudden illness was in
some way due to that gentleman's interference.
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