e word.
Has Mr. Manston spoken to you lately?'

'Yes,' said Cytherea, blushing timorously.

'He proposed?'

'Yes.'

'And you refused him?'

'Yes.'

'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 the