‘Tut, tut!  Now listen to my advice,’ said Miss Aldclyffe emphatically, ’and accept him before he changes his mind.  The chance which he offers you of settling in life is one that may possibly, probably, not occur again.  His position is good and secure, and the life of his wife would be a happy one.  You may not be sure that you love him madly; but suppose you are not sure?  My father used to say to me as a child when he was teaching me whist, “When in doubt win the trick!” That advice is ten times as valuable to a woman on the subject of matrimony.  In refusing a man there is always the risk that you may never get another offer.’

‘Why didn’t you win the trick when you were a girl?’ said Cytherea.

‘Come, my lady Pert; I’m not the text,’ said Miss Aldclyffe, her face glowing like fire.

Cytherea laughed stealthily.

‘I was about to say,’ resumed Miss Aldclyffe severely, ’that here is Mr. Manston waiting with the tenderest solicitude for you, and you overlooking it, as if it were altogether beneath you.  Think how you might benefit your sick brother if you were Mrs. Manston.  You will please me very much by giving him some encouragement.  You understand me, Cythie dear?’

Cytherea was silent.

‘And,’ said Miss Aldclyffe, still more emphatically, ’on your promising that you will accept him some time this year, I will take especial care of your brother.  You are listening, Cytherea?’

‘Yes,’ she whispered, leaving the room.

She went to Budmouth, passed the day with her brother, and returned to Knapwater wretched and full of foreboding.  Owen had looked startlingly thin and pale—­thinner and paler than ever she had seen him before.  The brother and sister had that day decided that notwithstanding the drain upon their slender resources, another surgeon should see him.  Time was everything.

Owen told her the result in his next letter:—­

’The three practitioners between them have at last hit the nail on the head, I hope.  They probed the place, and discovered that the secret lay in the bone.  I underwent an operation for its removal three days ago (after taking chloroform). . .  Thank God it is over.  Though I am so weak, my spirits are rather better.  I wonder when I shall be at work again?  I asked the surgeons how long it would be first.  I said a month?  They shook their heads.  A year?  I said.  Not so long, they said.  Six months?  I inquired.  They would not, or could not, tell me.  But never mind.

’Run down, when you have half a day to spare, for the hours drag on so drearily.  O Cytherea, you can’t think how drearily!’

She went.  Immediately on her departure Miss Aldclyffe sent a note to the Old House, to Manston.  On the maiden’s return, tired and sick at heart as usual, she found Manston at the station awaiting her.  He asked politely if he might accompany her to Knapwater.  She tacitly acquiesced.  During their walk he inquired the particulars of her brother’s illness, and with an irresistible desire to pour out her trouble to some one, she told him of the length of time which must elapse before he could be strong again, and of the lack of comfort in lodgings.