In the first glance Leonora noticed that Arthur was considerably thinner. She was overcome by a violent emotion that contained both fear and joy. And as he approached her, agitated and unsmiling, the joy said: 'How heavenly it is to see him again!' But the fear asked: 'Why is he so worn? What have you been doing to him all these months, Leonora?' She met him in the middle of the lawn, and they shook hands timidly, clumsily, embarrassed. Carpenter, with that inborn delicacy of tact which is the mark of a simple soul, walked away out of sight, and Bran, receiving no attention, followed him. 'Were you surprised to see me?' Arthur lamely questioned. In their hearts a thousand sensations struggled, some for expression, others for concealment; and speech, pathetically unequal to the swift crisis, was disconcerted by it almost to the verge of impotence. 'Yes,' she said. 'Very.' 'You ought not to have been,' he replied. His tone alarmed her. 'Why?' she said. 'When did you get my letter?' 'Just after one o'clock to-day.' 'To-day?' 'I was in London. It was sent on to me from New York.' She was relieved. When she saw him first at the window, she had a lightning vision of him tearing open her letter in New York, jumping instantly into a cab, and boarding the English steamer. This had frightened her. It was, if not exactly reassuring, at any rate less terrifying, to learn that he had flown to her only from London. 'Well,' he exclaimed, 'how's everybody? And where are the girls?' She gave the news, and then they walked together to the seat and sat down, in silence. 'You don't look too well,' she ventured. 'You've been working too hard.' He passed his hand across his forehead and moved on the seat so as to meet her eyes directly. 'Quite the reverse,' he said. 'I haven't been working half hard enough.' 'Not half hard enough?' she repeated mechanically.