"Do you know," said Annie, "I have been watching you with curiosity for some time past, though I did not know who you were till you turned. I could not account for your apathy and indifference to this scene, which to me is so novel and exciting, and which seems to find every one interested save yourself. I should hardly have thought you alive if you had not been smoking."
"Well," he said, "I have been abroad so often that it has become like crossing the ferry, and I was expecting no one down to see me off. But you do not look well;" and both she and Miss Eulie noticed that he glanced uneasily from her to Hunting, and did not seem sure how he should address her.
"Miss Walton has just recovered from a long illness," said Miss Eulie, quietly.
His face instantly brightened, and as quickly changed to an expression of sincerest sympathy.
"Not seriously ill, I hope," he said, earnestly.
"I'm afraid I was," replied Annie, adding, cheerfully, "I am quite well now, though."
His face became as pale as it had been flushed a moment before, and he said, in a low tone, "I did not know it."
His manner touched her, and proved that there was no indifference on his part toward her, though there might be to the bustling world around him.
Then he inquired particularly after each member of the household, and especially after old Daddy Tuggar.
Annie told him how delighted the children had been with the toys and books. "And as for Daddy Tuggar," she said, smiling, "he has been in the clouds, literally and metaphorically, ever since you sent him the tobacco. Whenever I go to see him he says, most cheerfully, 'It's all settled, Miss Annie. It grows clearer with every pipe' (while I can scarcely see him), 'I'm all right, 'cause I'm an awful sinner.'"