Besides, in those days people neither wrote nor expected letters very often.

During the three months that Lord Cairnforth remained in Edinburg he only received two epistles from Mr.Cardross, and those were in prolix and Johnsonian style, on literary topics, and concerning the great and learned, with whom the poor learned country minister had all his life longed to mix, and had never been able.
Helen, who had scarcely penned a dozen letters in her life, wrote to him once only, in reply to one of his, telling him she was doing every thing as she thought he would best like; that Captain Bruce had assisted her and her father in many ways, so far as his health allowed, but he was very delicate still, and talked of going abroad, to the south of France probably, as soon as possible.

The captain himself never wrote one single line.
At first the earl was a little surprised at this: however, it was not his habit easily to take offense at his friends.

He was quite without that morbid self-esteem which is always imagining affronts or injuries.
If people liked him, he was glad; if they showed it, he believed them, and rested in their affection with the simple faith of a child.

But if they seemed to neglect him, he still was ready to conclude the slight was accidental, and he rarely grieved over it.