She looked at him with her eyes brimming. _“Must_ I?”
“Yes; it will do you good for once in a way. It is only Ignatia.”
She drank it by degrees, and a tear along with it that fell into the glass.
Meantime Mr. Rolfe had returned to his notes and examined them. He then addressed her, half stiffly, half kindly:
“Lady Bassett, whatever may be your husband's condition--whether his illness is mental or bodily, or a mixture of the two--his clandestine examination by bought physicians, and his violent capture, the natural effect of which must have been to excite him and retard his cure, were wicked and barbarous acts, contrary to God's law and the common law of England, and, indeed, to all human law except our shallow, incautious Statutes de Lunatico: they were an insult to yourself, who ought at least to have been consulted, for your rights are higher and purer than Richard Bassett's; therefore, as a wife bereaved of your husband by fraud and violence and the bare letter of a paltry statute whose spirit has been violated, you are quite justified in coming to me or to any public man you think can help your husband and you.” Then, with a certain _bonhomie,_ “So lay aside your nervousness; let us go into this matter sensibly, like a big man and a little man, or like an old woman and a young woman, whichever you prefer.”
Lady Bassett looked at him and smiled assent. She felt a great deal more at her ease after this opening.
“I dare not advise you yet. I must know more than Mr. Angelo has told me. Will you answer my questions frankly?”
“Whose idea was it confining Sir Charles Bassett to the house so much?”
“His own. He felt himself unfit for society.”
“Did he describe his ailment to you then?”
“He said that, at times, a cloud seemed to come into his head, and then he lost all power of mind; and he could not bear to be seen in that condition.”
“Humph! Now will you tell me how Mr. Bassett, by mere words, could so enrage Sir Charles as to give him a fit?”
“He did not speak to him. His child and nurse were there, and he called out loud, for Sir Charles to hear, and told the nurse to hold up his child to look at his inheritance.”
“Malicious fool! But did this enrage Sir Charles so much as to give him a fit?”