'It is mortgaged.

But that is not the same thing.' The doctor's face showed genuine distress.

'Ah, my friend, you should not have done that,' he said reproachfully.

'A property that has been in the family--why, since--' 'My great-grandfather the stay-maker's time,' Sir George answered flippantly, as he emptied his glass.

'You know Selwyn's last upon that?
It came by bones, and it is going by bones.' 'God forbid!' said the physician, rubbing his gold-rimmed glasses with an air of kindly vexation, not unmixed with perplexity.