“I suppose you have received my letter?” she resumed.
“I have come here to thank you for your letter.”
“It was my duty to tell you of Sir Jervis’s illness; I deserve no thanks.”
“You have written to me so kindly,” Alban reminded her; “you have referred to our difference of opinion, the last time I was here, so gently and so forgivingly—”
“If I had written a little later,” she interposed, “the tone of my letter might have been less agreeable to you. I happened to send it to the post, before I received a visit from a friend of yours—a friend who had something to say to me after consulting with you.”
“Do you mean Doctor Allday?”
“Yes.”
“What did he say?”
“What you wished him to say. He did his best; he was as obstinate and unfeeling as you could possibly wish him to be; but he was too late. I have written to Mrs. Rook, and I have received a reply.” She spoke sadly, not angrily—and pointed to the letter lying on her desk.
Alban understood: he looked at her in despair. “Is that wretched woman doomed to set us at variance every time we meet!” he exclaimed.