Page:Eliot - Adam Bede, vol. III, 1859.djvu/96



returned from Stoniton in a post-chaise that night, and the first words Carrol said to him, as he entered the house, were, that Squire Donnithorne was dead—found dead in his bed at ten o'clock that morning—and that Mrs Irwine desired him to say she should be awake when Mr Irwine came home, and she begged him not to go to bed without seeing her.

"Well, Dauphin," Mrs Irwine said, as her son entered her room, "you're come at last. So the old gentleman's fidgetiness and low spirits, which made him send for Arthur in that sudden way, really meant something. I suppose Carrol has told you that Donnithorne was found dead in his bed this morning. You will believe my prognostications another time, though I daresay I shan't live to prognosticate anything but my own death."