’We get more and more into one groove.  I now am left fatherless and motherless as you were.’  Other ties lay behind in her thoughts, but she did not mention them.

‘You loved your father, Cytherea, and wept for him?’

‘Yes, I did.  Poor papa!’

’I was always at variance with mine, and can’t weep for him now!  But you must stay here always, and make a better woman of me.’

The compact was thus sealed, and Cytherea, in spite of the failure of her advertisements, was installed as a veritable Companion.  And, once more in the history of human endeavour, a position which it was impossible to reach by any direct attempt, was come to by the seeker’s swerving from the path, and regarding the original object as one of secondary importance.

VII.  THE EVENTS OF EIGHTEEN DAYS

1.  AUGUST THE SEVENTEENTH

The time of day was four o’clock in the afternoon.  The place was the lady’s study or boudoir, Knapwater House.  The person was Miss Aldclyffe sitting there alone, clothed in deep mourning.

The funeral of the old Captain had taken place, and his will had been read.  It was very concise, and had been executed about five years previous to his death.  It was attested by his solicitors, Messrs. Nyttleton and Tayling, of Lincoln’s Inn Fields.  The whole of his estate, real and personal, was bequeathed to his daughter Cytherea, for her sole and absolute use, subject only to the payment of a legacy to the rector, their relative, and a few small amounts to the servants.

Miss Aldclyffe had not chosen the easiest chair of her boudoir to sit in, or even a chair of ordinary comfort, but an uncomfortable, high, narrow-backed, oak framed and seated chair, which was allowed to remain in the room only on the ground of being a companion in artistic quaintness to an old coffer beside it, and was never used except to stand in to reach for a book from the highest row of shelves.  But she had sat erect in this chair for more than an hour, for the reason that she was utterly unconscious of what her actions and bodily feelings were.  The chair had stood nearest her path on entering the room, and she had gone to it in a dream.

She sat in the attitude which denotes unflagging, intense, concentrated thought—­as if she were cast in bronze.  Her feet were together, her body bent a little forward, and quite unsupported by the back of the chair; her hands on her knees, her eyes fixed intently on the corner of a footstool.

At last she moved and tapped her fingers upon the table at her side.  Her pent-up ideas had finally found some channel to advance in.  Motions became more and more frequent as she laboured to carry further and further the problem which occupied her brain.  She sat back and drew a long breath:  she sat sideways and leant her forehead upon her hand.  Later still she arose, walked up and down the room—­at first abstractedly, with her features as firmly set as ever; but by degrees her brow relaxed, her footsteps became lighter and more leisurely; her head rode gracefully and was no longer bowed.  She plumed herself like a swan after exertion.