Afraid to sit silent, lest he should seem unsympathetic and sceptical, Rolfe murmured a few harmless phrases, tending to nervous incoherence.
'I am thinking so much about Alma,' pursued the widow, recovering self-command.

'I am so uncertain about my duty to her.

Of her own, she has nothing; but I know, of course, that her father wished her to share in what he gave me.

It is strange, Mr.Rolfe, that I should be talking to you as if you were a relative--as if I had a right to trouble you with these things.

But if you knew how few people I dare speak to.
Wasn't it so much better for her to lead a very quiet life?
And so I gave her only a little money, only enough to live upon in the simplest way.