He greeted the two men coldly and somewhat condescendingly.
"We have not been especially fortunate hitherto," he said presently.
"In fact, this city seems to be labouring under a commercial depression, and I have been unable to find any of the opportunities I had expected.

Nor has my daughter been more successful." Alton, who had been looking about him in the meanwhile, noticed that although the day was chilly there was no fire in the stove, while glancing at the man who lay, infirm alike in will and body, in the chair, he understood why the girl's fingers had trembled and the mistiness he had for a moment seen in her eyes.

He was also wondering by what means he could lessen one difficulty, but it was Seaforth who devised one first.
"Things will get better presently," he said.

"Now Harry and I often remember the pleasant evenings we spent at your ranch, and we never got suppers like those Miss Townshead made us, at Somasco." "My daughter found it necessary to acquire the art of cookery in Canada," said Townshead a trifle distantly.
"Of course," said Seaforth, smiling.

"Everybody is compelled to in this country, and I only referred to the subject because Harry seems to fancy it must be difficult to get any of the little things we are used to in the bush in the city, while your kindness to us would justify what might otherwise appear a liberty.