QUOTE : And Demelza had been the active conniver in the change, so she could not complain. Indeed, it was Verity’s elopement that had caused a sharper breach between the families, and, in spite of Demelza’s self-sacrifice of last Christmas, the breach was not properly closed. The responsibility was not now Francis’s. Since the illnesses of last Christmas and little Julia’s death he seemed most anxious to show his gratitude for what Demelza had done. But Ross would have none of it. The failure of the Carnmore Copper Company lay insuperably between them. And if what Ross suspected about that failure was right, then Demelza could not blame him. But she would have been much happier with it otherwise. Her nature always preferred the straightforward settlement to the lingering bitter suspicion.