But these threats had at the moment been in vain, and the doctor had compromised matters by inducing Sir Louis to promise that he would go to Brighton.

The baronet, however, who was at length frightened by some renewed attack, gave up his Brighton scheme, and, without any notice to the doctor, hurried down to Boxall Hill.
Mary did not see him on the first day of his coming, but the doctor did.

He received such intimation of the visit as enabled him to be at the house soon after the young man's arrival; and, knowing that his assistance might be necessary, he rode over to Boxall Hill.

It was a dreadful task to him, this of making the same fruitless endeavour for the son that he had made for the father, and in the same house.
But he was bound by every consideration to perform the task.

He had promised the father that he would do for the son all that was in his power; and he had, moreover, the consciousness, that should Sir Louis succeed in destroying himself, the next heir to all the property was his own niece, Mary Thorne.
He found Sir Louis in a low, wretched, miserable state.