My biggest puzzlement in that section of the reading was that FW found Anne 'wretchedly altered'. That section also says that he said it without much consideration for who he was speaking too, almost speaking to himself, so it is made clear that he is really speaking his true mind. I talked it over with DH (I'm reading the book aloud to him) and he had a plausable suggestion. It is true that Anne has lost her bloom, but to both of us it didn't seem likely that this is what FW was referring to. We both think that he seems to have some affection for her and it seems a little odd that he would affectively say that she had turned pretty ugly in the last 8 years. DH thought that it was in her manner and behavior that she was so altered rather than merely in her appearance. I picture them in rapt conversation 8 years before. Her face would have glowed with affection, liveliness and interest as they spoke and laughed together. At their first meeting at the cottage I picture her with her head down, very shy, only barely able to meet his eye to greet him. She probably seemed a bit cold and distant; her mind spinning with memories and anxiety.