He listened to Thorndyke's announcement of our newly made arrangement without much enthusiasm and with none of his customary facetious comments.

And again I noticed a quick glance at me, half curious, half uneasy, and wholly puzzling to me.
"That's all right," he said when Thorndyke had explained the situation.
"I daresay you'll find Berkeley as useful as me, and, in any case, he'll be better here than staying on with Barnard." He spoke with unwonted gravity, and there was in his tone a solicitude for me that attracted my notice and that of Thorndyke as well, for the latter looked at him curiously, though he made no comment.

After a short silence, however, he asked: "And what news does my learned brother bring?
There is a mighty shouting among the outer barbarians, and I see a bundle of newspapers under my learned friend's arm.

Has anything in particular happened ?" Jervis looked more uncomfortable than ever.

"Well--yes," he replied hesitatingly, "something has happened--there! It's no use beating about the bush; Berkeley may as well learn it from me as from those yelling devils outside." He took a couple of papers from his bundle and silently handed one to me and the other to Thorndyke.
Jervis's ominous manner, naturally enough, alarmed me not a little.