"I've been well," says Laertes, still softly. Words have always come easily for him, with her; he has always known what to tell her that she should do, because he's heard it from their father a thousand times. To speak of himself is harder. No one has ever given him the words for it. "I've been--I've been here a year; that house thou seest behind me, I've built with mine own hands--Ophelia, I'm married, and I have a daughter--"