While he made a camp toilet he wondered why he had let himself in for all this. He had acted on a foolish impulse. There were roily depths in the matter which it would probably be better not to stir up, and it must now be his immediate care to get out of the whole connection as soon as possible. He had no desire to play detective against Miss Underwood's brother. Thank heaven that her acceptance of his tender for Philip had been so conditioned! He would withdraw while the matter was still nebulous.
There came a tap at the door and Mrs. Bussey entered.
"Breakfast's ready," she announced. Then she waited a moment and added in a shamefaced undertone that betrayed the unfamiliarity of the message, "Miss Underwood's compliments!" and vanished in obvious embarrassment.
Burton had to laugh at that, and with more cheerfulness than he would have thought possible he found his way to the breakfast room. Miss Underwood herself smiled a welcome at him from the head of the table.
"You are to breakfast tête-à-tête with me," she said, answering his unconscious look of inquiry. "Mother always breakfasts in her room, and poor father will have to do the same this morning. Henry has been gardening for hours. So you have only myself left!"
"I can imagine worse fates," said Burton. And then, with a curiosity about Henry which was none the less keen because he did not intend to make it public, he asked: "Is your brother an enthusiastic gardener?"
"It is the only thing he cares about, but it would be stretching the word to call him enthusiastic, I'm afraid. Poor Henry!"
"It has made him so moody and strange. You see, he has had Ben before him all his life as an object lesson on the effects of temper, and mother has rather pointed the moral. She thinks that all troubles are the punishment of some wrongdoing, and she has had a good deal of influence with Henry always. It has made him resentful toward every one."
"It's unfortunate. Wouldn't it be better to send Ben away?"
"Father hoped to cure him, so he kept him here. Besides, he couldn't afford to keep him anywhere else, I'm afraid. It would be expensive to send him to a hospital,--and father can do everything for him that any one could. No one realizes as I do how father has worried over the whole unhappy situation. He has tried everything for Ben,--even to electricity. And that made trouble, too!"