Second Period Chapter 16 The Doctor in Full Dress

Mr. Henley's household had been again established in London, when a
servant appeared one morning with a visiting card, and announced that a
gentleman had called who wished to see Miss Henley. She looked at the
card. The gentleman was Mr. Vimpany.

On the point of directing the man to say that she was engaged, Iris
checked herself.

Mrs. Vimpany's farewell words had produced a strong impression on her.
There had been moments of doubt and gloom in her later life, when the
remembrance of that unhappy woman was associated with a feeling
(perhaps a morbid feeling) of self-reproach. It seemed to be hard on
the poor penitent wretch not to have written to her. Was she still
leading the same dreary life in the mouldering old town? Or had she
made another attempt to return to the ungrateful stage? The gross
husband, impudently presenting himself with his card and his message,
could answer those questions if he could do nothing else. For that
reason only Iris decided that she would receive Mr. Vimpany.

On entering the room, she found two discoveries awaiting her, for which
she was entirely unprepared.

The doctor's personal appearance exhibited a striking change; he was
dressed, in accordance with the strictest notions of professional
propriety, entirely in black. More remarkable still, there happened to
be a French novel among the books on the table--and that novel Mr.
Vimpany, barbarous Mr. Vimpany, was actually reading with an appearance
of understanding it!