"You are scarcely thinner than when I went away." "And you are vastly improved," was Anna's answer.
His mother continued: "I thought, perhaps, you were offended at my plain letter concerning that girl, and resented it by not coming, but of course you are glad now, and see that mother was right.

What could you have done with a wife in Paris ?" "I should not have gone," John answered, moodily, a shadow stealing over his face.
It was not good taste for Mrs.Richards thus early to introduce a topic on which John was really so sore, and for a moment an awkward silence ensued, broken at last by the mother again, who, feeling that all was not right, and anxious to know if there was yet aught to fear from a poor, unknown daughter-in-law, asked, hesitatingly: "Have you seen her since your return ?" "She's dead," was the laconic reply, and then, as if anxious to change the conversation, the young doctor turned to Anna and said: "Guess who was my fellow traveler from Liverpool ?" Anna never could guess anything, and after a little her brother said: "The Rev.Charles Millbrook, missionary to Turkey, returning for his health." For an instant Anna trembled as if she saw opening before her the grave which for fourteen years had held her buried heart.

Charlie was breathing again the air of the same hemisphere with herself.

She might, perhaps, see him once more, and Hattie, was she with him, or was there another grave made with the Moslem dead by little Anna's aide?
She would not ask, for she felt the cold, critical eyes bent upon her from across the hearth, and a few commonplace inquiries was all she ventured upon.
Had Mr.Millbrook greatly changed since he went away?
Did he look very sick?
And how had her brother liked him?
"I scarcely spoke to him," was John's reply.

"I confess to a most lamentable ignorance touching the Rev.Mr.Millbrook and his family.