Wilks, reluctantly. "I couldn't say
anything else; but I said that she wasn't to let my feelings interfere
with 'er in any way."
Hardy's father sailed a day or two later, and after that nothing
happened. Equator Lodge was an impregnable fortress, and the only member
of the garrison he saw in a fortnight was Bella.
His depression did not escape the notice of his partner, who, after first
advising love-philtres and then a visit to a well-known specialist for
diseases of the heart, finally recommended more work, and put a generous
portion of his own on to the young man's desk. Hardy, who was in an evil
temper, pitched it on to the floor and, with a few incisive remarks on
levity unbecoming to age, pursued his duties in gloomy silence.
A short time afterwards, however, he had to grapple with his partner's
work in real earnest. For the first time in his life the genial
shipbroker was laid up with a rather serious illness. A chill caught
while bathing was going the round of certain unsuspected weak spots, and
the patient, who was of an inquiring turn of mind, was taking a greater
interest in medical works than his doctor deemed advisable.
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