The lady looked very pale and sick; indeed, a great change had come over her since we parted, only a few weeks before. I saw that she had been very sick, and that she was still very far from being in her usual health. Though she had been brought up tenderly and delicately, she had done the house-work, with the assistance of Ella and myself, at the settlement during the summer. For my own part, I felt quite alarmed about her, she looked so pale and sick. She was reclining upon the lounge when I entered, but she rose to greet me.
"I am glad to see you, Phil Farringford, for I have thought a great deal about you since we parted so strangely," said Mr. Gracewood. "Your letter afforded me a great deal of satisfaction."
"I have worried a great deal about you and your family, sir," I replied; "and it gives me new life to see you again. When did you arrive?"
"We did not get ashore till after nine o'clock, too late to go out to Glencoe, where my brother lives at the present time."
I wanted to tell him that his brother was in the very next room; but I did not think that I had the right to complicate the affairs of others, and I said nothing.
"What have you been doing, Phil?" asked Mr. Gracewood.
"I am a carpenter now; I work at the Plane and Plank, and am doing first rate," I replied.
"I have a long story to tell you, but I suppose it is rather late to begin it to-night."
"I am afraid it would be rather trying to the nerves of Mrs. Gracewood, and we will postpone it," he replied, glancing at his wife.