“I'm very sorry. It's nothing serious, I hope?” he said.
He drew forward a chair, and seated himself with no little composure before the fire.
“I am not detaining you?” he said suddenly, half rising.
“No, I think not; Martha is with her.”
He wondered vaguely at her reticence regarding Jane.
“There's a good deal of sickness,” he said, as one presenting a valuable fact for her consideration.
“So I hear.”
“I fear her affairs are in a rather bad way,” he continued, suddenly recalled to the ostensible purpose of his visit.
“You have heard from her husband's brother then?” said Virginia quickly.
“Not from him personally, but from a lawyer in New York for whom I occasionally transact business here.”