But he did not go back to his mechanical dentistry.

He sat opposite his visitor, and watched her, silently and thoughtfully, for some time as she worked.

She had brushed away her tears, but she looked very peevish and miserable, and took out her watch several times in an hour.

Mr.
Sheldon made two or three feeble attempts at conversation, but the talk languished and expired on each occasion, and they sat on in silence.
Little by little the dentist's attention seemed to wander away from his guest.

He wheeled his chair round, and sat looking at the fire with the same fixed gloom upon his face which had darkened it on the night of his return from Yorkshire.