"I am sure of that, thank you," she answered low.
"Could you bear to tell me a little about it?"
"Would you care to hear?"
"Indeed I should; I have felt so sorrowful for you all this time."
Nellie glanced up gratefully, but found it very difficult to open afresh the wounds which were so slightly healed. She could not begin yet.
"I hear that Hope is getting better," she said.
"At last; she was very ill after you left."
"I feared she was going to be, and I was so sorry I could not stay to nurse her."
"She was very sorry to lose you; but our grief at all you came home to, seemed to put poor Hope's illness quite in the background."
"What was the matter? I have never heard."