Although not yet forty, the baronet was a chronic sufferer from this complaint.
"My dear Mr.Fenton, how good of you to come to me!" he exclaimed, shaking hands very cordially with Gilbert.

"Here I am, laid by the heels in this dreary old place, and quite alone.

You can't imagine what a treat it is to see a friendly intelligent face from the outer world." "The purpose of my visit is such a purely selfish one, that I am really ashamed to receive such a kindly greeting, Sir David.

If I had known you were here and an invalid, I should have gladly come to see you; but I didn't know it.

I have been at Lidford on a matter of business for the last two days; and I came here on the hazard of finding you, and with a faint hope that you might be able to give me some help in an affair which is supremely important to me." Sir David Forster looked at Gilbert Fenton curiously for a moment, and then took up an empty meerschaum that lay upon a little table near him, and began to fill it with a thoughtful air.