The Black Fox A Novel Of The Seventies (33 page)

"I think I should inform you, Doctor, that the Dean has suddenly been ordered abroad."

"Abroad?"

"Yes, I understand a consultant specialist—I think that is the term, is it not—is convinced that an acute consumptive condition has suddenly intervened."

"Tuberculosis?" The question had 4 in it something of Halli-well's incredulity. But a moment after the physician corrected his surprise. 'Well, well," he added, "of course T.B. cases can and do suddenly spring themselves on us. And, further, there can be little doubt that many are end-processes of conditions that up to the point of sudden crisis are purely functional, purely nervous, if I may put it that way."

The slower summons of the larger Cathedral bell was at that moment exchanged for the thin nervous rapidity of the five-minutes' warning. The Bishop waved his hand. The doctor saluted.

Besides his letter to the Palace, the Dean had mailed another one to the Deanery.

"There, I knew it," cried out Mrs. Binyon, for she was the recipient, "I knew it, from the moment that fox came into the house, from that moment. . . ."

Nor when she read them the rest of the letter—a month's wages for all, a lawyer coming down to see about things being moved—could they hope to move her from her dark conviction. Indeed the more they thought the whole thing over, the more they felt that though it didn't sound a bit likely or Protestant, there might be something in it.