"Thank you. Yes, I am I believe, mending apace."
"I am glad of it, as I think your wife needs change, she is looking far from well; the sooner you take her home the better."
"Bertie's death was a bitter trial; and she felt it deeply."
"Bitter, indeed, it must have been, to have changed her so utterly. She is greatly altered since her marriage."
Robert Vavasour sighed.
"You are right," he replied. "I myself see the change, but without the power to remedy it now."
"How so?" she asked.
"You say altered since her marriage. It is true; for when Amy married she wilfully shut out from her heart all hopes of happiness."
"You speak in riddles, Mr. Vavasour, which I am totally unable to comprehend."
"I am a rich man, Mrs. Elrington, and that alone might have tempted many a girl, or led her to fancy she loved me."