‘And where have you been?’
‘Oh! in all manner of queer places. I have been talking Latin with the folks in Dacia. Droll state of things there; one could fancy it Britain, or Gaul half settled by the Teutons, with the Roman sticking about them. But that’s too much to tell, I have heard nothing from home this age. How is Theodora? I am afraid she has outgrown her antics.’
‘She is not too much like other people.’
‘Are you all at home, and in “statu quo”?’
‘Yes, except that my aunt is more aged and feeble.’
‘And Master Arthur has set up for a domestic character. It must be after a fashion of his own.’
‘Rather so,’ said John, smiling; ‘but it has done him a great deal of good. He has more heart in him than you and I used to think; and home is drawing it out, and making a man of him in spite of himself.’
‘How came she to marry him?’
‘Because she knew no better, poor thing; her family promoted it, and took advantage of her innocence.’
‘Is she a sensible woman?’