"Quite."
He moved away and seemed to be busy with a picture; it was on an easel so placed that, as he stood before it, he also overlooked Miriam at her needlework. For a time there was perfect quietness. Mallard kept glancing at his companion, but she did not once raise her eyes. At length he spoke.
"I have never had an opportunity of asking you what your new impressions were of Bartles."
"The place was much the same as I left it," she answered naturally.
"And the people? Did you see all your old friends?"
"I saw no one except my sister-in-law and her family."
"You felt no inclination?"
"None whatever."
"By-the-bye"—he seemed to speak half absently, looking closely at his work—"hadn't you once some thought of building a large new chapel there?"
"I once had."