He spoke of his good fortune: he was the agent for the most valuable lands in that region, and the future was beginning to look very bright.

Business, he said, might take him North before long, and the humming-birds would show him the way to the fairest roses.

The hope of seeing her shone in every line.

It reached Alice Yorke in the midst of preparation for her marriage.
Alice Yorke sat for some time in meditation over this letter.

It brought back vividly the time which she had never wholly forgotten.