"Pretty well, I thank you," said she.
"You have been out of town, I think?" She told him that she had been in the Isle of Wight for a day or two, and then there was a short silence. "When I heard that you were gone," he said, "I feared that perhaps you were ill!"
"O dear, no; nothing of that sort."
"I am so glad," said Archie; and then he was silent again. He had, however, as he was aware, thrown a great deal of expression into his inquiries after her health, and he had now to calculate how he could best use the standing-ground that he had made for himself.
"Have you seen my sister lately?" she asked.
"Your sister? no. She is always at Clavering. I think it doosed wrong of Hugh, the way he goes on, keeping her down there, while he is up here in London. It isn't at all my idea of what a husband ought to do."
"I suppose she likes it," said Lady Ongar.
"Oh, if she likes it, that's a different thing, of course," said Archie. Then there was another pause.
"Don't you find yourself rather lonely here sometimes?" he asked.
Lady Ongar felt that it would be better for all parties that it should be over, and that it would not be over soon unless she could help him. "Very lonely indeed," she said; "but then I suppose that it is the fate of widows to be lonely."