Mr.Athel displayed even more than his usual urbanity; Mrs.Rossall was genuinely gracious; the twins made many promises to write from Switzerland.

Emily was self-possessed, but Wilfrid read in her face that she was going through an ordeal.

He felt the folly of his first proposal, that she should play a part before Mrs.
Rossall through the winter months.

He decided, moreover, that no time should be lost in making the necessary disclosure to his father.
Naturally it would be an anxious time with Emily till she had news from him.

She had asked him to direct letters to the Dunfield post office, not to her home; it was better so for the present.
Wilfrid, though anything but weakly nervous, was impatient of suspense, and, in face of a situation like the present, suffered from the excitability of an imaginative temperament.