This reception was slightly different from what he had anticipated.

He remarked that he might be taken a week on trial, and to this Bates agreed, not without some further hesitation.

Trenholme inquired after the health of the old aunt of whom he had heard.
"In bodily health," said Bates, "she is well.

You may perhaps have heard that in mind she has failed somewhat." The man's reserve was his dignity, and it produced its result, although obvious dignity of appearance and manner was entirely lacking to him.
The toothless, childish old man woman Trenholme encountered when he entered the house struck him as an odd exaggeration of the report he had just received.

He did not feel at home when he sat down to eat the food Bates set before him; he perceived that it was chiefly because in a new country hospitality is considered indispensable to an easy conscience that he had received any show of welcome.
Yet the lank brown hand that set his mug beside him shook so that some tea was spilt.