An illness! Plausible enough to be quite conceivable, and still vague enough to be rather unsatisfying an answer! Whatever it had been, she suspected it was a little more than a common cold.
“They never do,” Carmelina sympathised cheerfully, though the sentiment was absolute nonsense: she hadn’t the foggiest what healers prescribed from one situation to another. “But, forgive me,” and she was most certainly overstepping here - who was she to tell a passing gentleman how to arrange his affairs?; in light of this, she spoke lightly, something near teasing, “are you quite sure you weren’t - prematurely discharged?”
She had come to lean upon the wall a little ways beside him, the thought of continuing on her walk entirely secondary to this incident now, until she had found out more about this man. (Including whether he was well enough to be carrying on by himself in this state, of course.)
“They never do,” Carmelina sympathised cheerfully, though the sentiment was absolute nonsense: she hadn’t the foggiest what healers prescribed from one situation to another. “But, forgive me,” and she was most certainly overstepping here - who was she to tell a passing gentleman how to arrange his affairs?; in light of this, she spoke lightly, something near teasing, “are you quite sure you weren’t - prematurely discharged?”
She had come to lean upon the wall a little ways beside him, the thought of continuing on her walk entirely secondary to this incident now, until she had found out more about this man. (Including whether he was well enough to be carrying on by himself in this state, of course.)
