"How do you and the dowager get on together?"
"Oh, pretty well. She does not interfere a great deal with me, and I keep out of her way as much as possible."
"That's sensible on both sides."
He certainly looked older and more careworn, as he sat there, than she had ever seen him look before. It made her heart ache to look at him. If she could but have comforted him! if she could but have laid his head against her bosom, and have kissed back the pleasant light into his eyes, and the sunny smile to his lips, as she remembered them in the days before the shadow of Eleanor Lloyd had ever crossed his path! But that might not be.
"Do you see much of Miss Lloyd nowadays?" asked Kelvin, presently, in as indifferent a tone as he could assume.
"I generally see her at breakfast and luncheon when she is at home. Not often besides."
"She is quite well, I suppose?"
"Quite well, so far as I know. Why should she not be?"
"Anything come of that affair between her and Captain--Captain, what do you call him?"
"Captain Dayrell, you mean. No; I believe the affair is broken off entirely. I have reason to believe that when it came to the point, Miss Lloyd would have nothing more to do with him."