But I fear it won't.' After saying that Somerset asked himself why he should mince matters with so genuine and sympathetic a girl as Charlotte De Stancy?
She could tell him particulars which he burned to know.

He might never again have an opportunity of knowing them, since she and he would probably not meet for years to come, if at all.
'Have the castle works progressed pretty rapidly under the new architect ?' he accordingly asked.
'Yes,' said Charlotte in her haste--then adding that she was not quite sure if they had progressed so rapidly as before; blushingly correcting herself at this point and that, in the tinkering manner of a nervous organization aiming at nicety where it was not required.
'Well, I should have liked to carry out the undertaking to its end,' said Somerset.

'But I felt I could not consistently do so.

Miss Power--' (here a lump came into Somerset's throat--so responsive was he yet to her image)--'seemed to have lost confidence in me, and--it was best that the connection should be severed.' There was a long pause.

'She was very sorry about it,' said Charlotte gently.
'What made her alter so ?--I never can think!' Charlotte waited again as if to accumulate the necessary force for honest speaking at the expense of pleasantness.