'Elzevir,' I said, 'I think there was one listening at the door, and
there may be others in the house, so before we sit again let us take
candle and go through the rooms to make sure none are prying on us.'
He laughed and said, ''Twas but the wind that blew the door open,' but
that I might do as I pleased. So I lit another candle, and was for
starting on my search; but he cried, 'Nay, thou shalt not go alone'; and
so we went all round the house together, and found not so much as a
mouse stirring.
He laughed the more when we came back to the parlour. ''Tis the cold
has chilled thy heart and made thee timid of that skulking rascal of
the Manor; fill me a glass of Ararat milk, and one for thyself, and let
us to bed.'
I had learned by this not to be afraid of the good liquor, and while we
sat sipping it, Elzevir went on--
'There is a fortnight yet to run, and then you and I shall be cut adrift
from our moorings. It is a cruel thing to see the doors of this house
closed on me, where I and mine have lived a century or more, but I must
see it. Yet let us not be too cast down, but try to make something even
of this worst of throws.'
I was glad enough to hear him speak in this firmer strain, for I had seen
what a sore thought it had been for these days past that he must leave
the Why Not?, and how it often made him moody and downcast.
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