"I had no one else to talk to and am very miserable about it all.

You don't mind my sending for you, do you ?" "Mind! Why do you ask such a question?
I am never so happy as when I am serving you." That she should send for him at all was happiness.

Not sickness this time, nor some question of investment, nor the repair of the barn or gate or out-buildings--but Lucy, who lay nearest her heart! That was even better than he had expected.
"Tell me all about it, so I can get it right," he continued in a straightforward tone--the tone of the physician, not the lover.

She had relied on him, and he intended to give her the best counsel of which he was capable.

The lover could wait.
"Well, she received a letter a week ago from Miss Collins, saying she had come to Trenton for the winter and had taken some rooms in a house belonging to her aunt, who would live with her.