You stooped too low, and I looked
too high. John has not money enough; Elizabeth has too much."
"You are wronging both Elizabeth and John. What has Elizabeth done
or said?"
"There is a change in her, though I cannot define it. Her letters are
less frequent; they are shorter; they are full of Antony and his wild,
ambitious schemes. They keep the form, but they lack the spirit, of
her first letters."
"It is nearly two years since you parted."
"Yes."
"Go and see her. Absence does not make the heart grow fonder. If it
did, we should never forget the dead. Those who touch us move us. Go
and see Elizabeth again. Women worth loving want wooing."
"Will you go with me?"
"Do not ask me. I doubt whether I could bear the tossing to and fro
for so many days, and I want to stay where I can hear from John."
There was much further talk upon the subject, but the end of it was
that Richard sailed for England in the early summer. He hardly expected
to renew the enthusiasm of his first visit, and he was prepared for
changes; and, perhaps, he felt the changes more because those to whom
they had come slowly and separately were hardly conscious of them.
Elizabeth was a different woman, although she would have denied it.
Her character had matured, and was, perhaps, less winning. She had
fully accepted the position of heiress of Hallam, and Richard could
feel that it was a controlling influence in her life.
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