More than once
he muttered to himself in a troubled manner; but his words, for the most
part, were incoherent and disjointed--words of which that perplexed
listener could make nothing.
Once she heard him say, "A bad job--dangerous business."
CHAPTER XL.
IN PURSUIT.
John Saltram improved daily at Hampton Court. In spite of his fierce
impatience to get well, in order to engage in the search for Marian--an
impatience which was in itself sufficient to militate against his
well-being--he did make considerable progress on the road to recovery. He
was still very weak, and it must take time to complete his restoration;
but he was no longer the pale ghost of his former self that Gilbert had
brought down to the quiet suburb.
It would have been a cruel thing to leave him much alone at such a time,
or it would have seemed very cruel to Gilbert Fenton, who had ever
present in his memory those old days in Egypt when this man had stood him
in such good stead. He remembered the days of his own sickness, and
contrived to perform his business duties within the smallest time
possible, and so spend the rest of his life in the comfortable
sitting-rooms looking out upon Bushy-park on the one side, and on the
other upon the pretty high road before the Palace grounds.
Nor was there any sign in the intercourse of those two that the bond of
friendship between them was broken.
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