"And pray, if you have been back some time, why have you not come to see us?"
"I don't care to encounter old acquaintances, Frances; still less to intrude voluntarily upon them. They might not like it, you see."
"I see that you have taken up very ridiculous notions; that you are curiously altered."
"Adversity alters most people. That bracelet has never been heard of?"
"Oh, that's gone for good. No doubt melted down in a caldron, as the colonel calls it, and the diamonds reset. It remains a mystery of the past, and is never expected to be solved."
"And they still suspect me! What is the matter with your dress?"
"Matter enough," answered she, letting it down and turning round for his inspection. "I came here to get it repaired. That great booby, John Cust, did it for me."
"Fanny, how is Alice Dalrymple?"
"You have cause to ask after her! She is dying."
"Dying!" repeated Gerard, in hushed, shocked tones.