"All pain must be to work some good in the end."
R. BROWNING.
"JEAN, are you getting tired of Rouen?"
"After four days in the place? No—why should I?"
"People don't always wait for a particular reason. It is rather stupid for you here. If I could go about more—"
"Well, yes—if you had a little more strength than a wren! When we get home, I shall put you into Dr. Ingram's hands."
"No use. There are—some things—which a doctor can't touch. What if I don't go home at all at present?"
"Rouen has not done you such an amount of good that you need wish to stay. I don't believe there is anything very wrong—only you are weak, and you want building up. I think you fret about people too much."
"My dear, you always were the personification of wisdom! Now pull the shawl over my feet, and run down to the coffee-room for a change. That nice old Mrs. Newnham is sure to be there. If not, you must come back. You might even arrange for a walk with her daughter. No, I cannot have you wandering about alone. You are not so elderly as you think: and this is not Dulveriford."
Jean arranged the shawl, and vanished. They had a little private sitting-room: though, for Jean's sake, Evelyn had chosen to dine at the table d'hôte, where they had formed a slight acquaintance with one old lady. Jean found her, as Evelyn had expected, but the daughter was already gone out, and Mrs. Newnham was no walker. So she resigned herself to the inevitable, and after a short chat, sat down at a table near one of the windows.
She could there amuse herself with a pile of papers and serials, or study French manners in the quaint street. Intrinsically, a Frenchman is diverse from an Englishman: and he always looks different—even in his mode of getting along a pavement. The gait and air of the one can hardly be mistaken for those of the other. Jean sometimes tried to analyse the difference, and found it difficult. Not even a waxed moustache, a sallow skin, and a pair of mobile shoulders, will turn an Englishman into a Frenchman. The distinction is more subtle in kind.