Rodolphe remained standing, and Emma hardly answered his first conventional phrases.

“I,” he said, “have been busy. I have been ill.”

“Seriously?” she cried.

“Well,” said Rodolphe, sitting down at her side on a footstool, “no; it was because I did not want to come back.”

“Why?”

“Can you not guess?”

He looked at her again, but so hard that she lowered her head, blushing. He went on⁠—

“Emma!”

“Sir,” she said, drawing back a little.