“He asked what could possibly have happened, in such a quiet place as Kensington Gardens, to make me faint.”
“And how did you answer?”
“Answer? I couldn’t even look at him!”
“You said nothing?”
“Nothing. I don’t know what he thought of me; he might have been surprised, or he might have been offended.”
“Is he easily offended?” Mr. Rayburn asked.
“Not in my experience of him.”
“Do you mean your experience of him before your illness?”
“Yes. Since my recovery, his engagements with country patients have kept him away from London. I have not seen him since he took these lodgings for me. But he is always considerate. He has written more than once to beg that I will not think him neglectful, and to tell me (what I knew already through my poor husband) that he has no money of his own, and must live by his profession.”
“In your husband’s lifetime, were the two brothers on good terms?”