When Lashmar and Miss Tomalin were married, he might or might not see something of them.

The man had ideas: it remained to be proved whether his strength was equal to his ambitions.
A few days later, Dymchurch heard that one of his sisters was not very well.

She had caught a cold, and could not shake it off.

This decided him to plan a summer holiday.

He wrote and asked whether the girls would go with him to a certain quiet spot high in the Alps, and how soon they could leave home.