The compliment was unstudied and pleasant, but she steeled herself for her task.

She knew instinctively that she had influence with him, and she meant to use it to its utmost limit.
"I am glad, we are all glad, you are better," she said cordially; then added, "how do your affairs come on?
What are your plans ?" Valmond forgot that she was his inquisitor; he only saw her as his ally, his friend.

So he spoke to her, as he had done at the Manor, with a sort of eloquence, of his great theme.

He had changed greatly.

The rhetorical, the bizarre, had left his speech.