ecame mere comments on home news; she wrote
less frequently, feared they would think her grown too fine to care for
them, and then wept and sobbed with home sickness. There was a little
more comfort in writing to Rickworth, for she expected the Brandons
early in May, and her only hope was in Lady Elizabeth for care and
counsel: for as to Arthur's dependence, his mother and sister, she felt
as if the fear and restraint of their presence would be unbearable.

Her husband never guessed how she languished. In his presence she was
a different creature, forgetting her griefs in the one wish of pleasing
him. No matter what she had been undergoing in his absence, his knock
raised her spirits, in a moment life darted into her limbs and colour
into her cheeks. She had no notion of complaining. Her mother had always
been silent, though often with greater cause for remonstrance; and poor
Violet, imagining herself a burden, would not for the world have made
herself more troublesome than she could help. Her whole desire was to
win a smile, a fond word, a caress, and she sat watching as if those
were life to her; her cheeks burning with eagerness so much that Arthur
little guessed how wan they were in his absence.

The colour was heightened by warm rooms, for Arthur was of a chilly
race, and could not understand how oppressive the close atmosphere of
London was to one used to mountain breezes. He would come in shivering,
and be provoked to find her sitting by the smallest of fires; till
she learnt that their estimate of heat was so different, that the only
safety was in keeping the room like an oven. The folding doors into the
back drawing-room had a trick of opening of their own accord; and the
trouble given her by this draught-trap, as Arthur called it, can hardly
be estimated, especially one windy week in March, when he had a cold.

She had never been wont to think seriously of colds but when it came to
coughing and feverishness all night, and Arthur, with his hand on his
chest, persisted that it was all in his throat and told her to send for
a blister, she grew alarmed, but this only displeased him. He disdained
her entreaty that he would remain in bed; and said women always made a
fuss about nothing, when she timidly suggested sending for 'some one.'

For three deplorable days he sat over the fire, with a distaste for
everything, while she did her utmost to make him comfortable, and
when she failed, thought it her own fault, re