"I am truly sorry. I wish I could be of some use. If you thought you could speak about it to me, you know you can trust me."
"I know I can. Oh, if I could only tell you! But I can't."
"Why not? Would it be so very hard? I might be able to help you."
"You might. I do want somebody's advice—so much."
"You are always welcome to mine. You needn't take it, you know."
She smiled through her tears, for she had acquired a faint sense of humour under Ted's influence, and had not yet lost it.
"Well, it's about Vinc—my cousin Mr. Hardy. You remember meeting him here once?"
"I do indeed."
"You may remember something I told you about him then. Perhaps I ought not to have told you."
"Never mind that. Yes, I remember perfectly. Has he been persecuting you again?"