But as for this other thing, it is far more important.

Something has happened; something I always expected; something that I looked forward to for years; although it has waited on the way so long, it has actually come at last, when I had almost forgotten to look for it.
So true it is, Arnold, that good fortune and misfortune alike come when we least expect them." Arnold sat down.

He knew his cousin too well to interrupt her.

She had her own way of telling a story, and it was a roundabout way.
"I cannot complain, after twenty years, can I?
I have had plenty of rope, as you would say.

But still it has come at last.