e he locked
the door, then took the arm he gave her, and wound her way out of the
churchyard with him. Then they walked to the house together, but the
great matter having been set at rest, she persisted in talking only on
indifferent subjects.

'Christmas Day, then,' he said, as they were parting at the end of the
shrubbery.

'I meant Old Christmas Day,' she said evasively.

'H'm, people do not usually attach that meaning to the words.'

'No; but I should like it best if it could not be till then?' It seemed
to be still her instinct to delay the marriage to the utmost.

'Very well, love,' he said gently. ''Tis a fortnight longer still; but
never mind. Old Christmas Day.'

9. THE ELEVENTH OF SEPTEMBER

'There. It will be on a Friday!'

She sat upon a little footstool gazing intently into the fire. It was
the afternoon of the day following that of the steward's successful
solicitation of her hand.

'I wonder if it would be proper in me to run across the park and tell
him it is a Friday?' she said to herself, rising to her feet, looking
at her hat lying near, and then out of the window towards the Old
House. Proper or not, she felt that she must at all hazards remove the
disagreeable, though, as she herself owned, unfounded impression the
coincidence had occasioned. She left the house directly, and went to
search for him.

Manston was in the timber-yard, looking at the sawyers as they worked.
Cytherea came up to him hesitatingly. Till within a distance of a few
yards she had hurried forward with alacrity--now that the practical
expression of his face became visible she wished almost she had never
sought him on such an errand; in his business-mood he was perhaps very
stern.

'It will be on a Friday,' she said confusedly, and without any preface.

'Come this way!' said Manston, in the tone he used for workmen, not
being able to alter at an instant's notice. He gave her his arm and
led her back into the avenue, by which time he was lover again. 'On
a Friday, will it, dearest? You do not mind Fridays, surely? That's
nonsense.'

'Not seriously mind them, exactly--but if it could be any other day?'

'Well, let us say Old Christmas Eve, then. Shall it be Old Christmas
Eve?'

'Yes, Old Christmas Eve.'

'Your word is solemn, and irrevocable now?'

'Certainly, I have solemnly pledged my word; I should not have promised
to marry you if I had not meant it. Don't think I should.' She spoke the
words with a digni