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'Come, my lady Pert; I' like fire

Cytherea laughed stealthily

'I was about to say,' resu with the tenderest solicitude for you, and you overlooking it, as if it were altogether beneath you Think how you ht benefit your sick brother if you were Mrs Manston You will please ement You understand me, Cythie dear?' Cytherea was silent

'And,' said Miss Aldclyffe, stillthat 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 hi

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 re chloroforh 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 , they said Six months? I inquired They would not, or could not, tell me But never mind

'Run dohen 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 ht acco their walk he inquired the particulars of her brother's illness, and with an irresistible desire to pour out her trouble to soth of tiain, and of the lack of cos

Manston was silent awhile Then he said impetuously: 'Miss Graye, I will not em they say is fair in love, and I aive me, for I cannot help it Consent to be my wife at any time that may suit you--any remote day you may name will satisfy me--and you shall find him well provided for' For the first time in her life she truly dreaded the handsome man at her side who pleaded thus selfishly, and shrank from the hot voluptuous nature of his passion for her, which, disguise it as he ht under a quiet and polished exterior, at ti white heat She perceived how aniained