The Lindsays, Volume III by John K. Leys

It was not until his sister and aunt had left London that Alec Lindsay began to feel the effect of his imprisonment and of the anxiety he had suffered. His natural energy had vanished. He was content to hang all day over the fire, and began to have a morbid shrinking from intercourse with strangers. He fancied that the shadow of the accusation yet clung to him. His cough had never left him; and he felt more and more indisposed for exertion of any kind. He lived quite alone, often spending whole days without exchanging a word with any human being. The arrangement with Messrs. Hatchett, Small, and Hatchett had been tacitly abandoned; and he had not been able to decide on taking any fresh step. There was little wonder that, living as he did, he became gloomy and melancholy, tired of his life and of everything around him.

One afternoon he was surprised by a visit from Hubert Blake.