not in the hotel but in a quiet cottage a yards up the hill who had heard all did not show or say what she felt at the news but after breakfast on meeting the landlady in a passage alone she asked with some anxiety if there were a really skilful medical man in and on being told that there was and his name she went back to look for mr but he had gone they heard nothing more of young all that morning but towards evening while sat at her window looking over the heads of upon the beyond she saw the painter walk by she immediately went to her aunt and begged her to go out and ask mr if his son had improved i will send or said mrs i wish you would see him yourself he has gone on i shall never find him he has only gone round to the front persisted do walk that way and ask him thus pressed mrs and brought back intelligence to miss power who had watched them through the window that his son did not positively improve but that his american friends were very kind to him having made use of her aunt seemed particularly anxious to rid of her again and when that lady sat down to write letters went to her own room hastily dressed herself without assistance asked privately the way to the cottage and went off unobserved at the upper end of the lane she saw a little house answering to the description whose front garden window and door step were literally a with in bloom she entered this inhabited quietly asked for the invalid and if he were well enough to see miss power the woman of the house soon returned and she was conducted up a crooked staircase to s modest apartments it appeared that some rooms in this dwelling had been furnished by the landlady of the inn who hired them of the tenant during the summer season to use as an to the hotel admitted to the outer room she beheld her looking as as possible lying on a small couch which was drawn up to the open whence he had a back view of the window flowers and enjoyed a green through the of the same leaves that presented their faces to the without when the latch had again into the catch of the closed door went up to the invalid upon whose pale and interesting face a flush had arisen simultaneously with the announcement of her name he would have sprung up to receive her but she i pressed him down and throwing all reserve on one side for the first time in their intercourse she crouched beside the sofa whispering with solicitude her face not too far from his own how foolish you are george to get ill just now when i have been wanting so much to see you again � i am so sorry to see you like this � what i said to you when we met on the shore was not what i had come to say took her by the hand then what did you come to say he asked i wanted to tell you that the mere wanton wandering of a capricious mind was not the cause of my from you there has been a great deception practised � the exact nature of it i cannot tell you plainly just at present it is too painful � but it is all over and i can assure you of my sorrow at having behaved as i did and of my sincere friendship now as ever there is nothing i shall value so much as that it will make my work at the castle very pleasant to feel that i can consult you about it without fear of on you against your wishes yes perhaps it will but � you do not comprehend me you have been an always and you have been provoking but never so provoking as now i wouldn t for the world tell you the whole of my fancies as i came hither this evening but i should think your natural would suggest what they were it does but there are motives of delicacy which prevent my acting on what is suggested to me delicacy is a gift and you should thank god for it but in some cases it is not so precious as we would persuade ourselves not when the woman is rich and the man is poor oh george � be cold or angry or anything but don t be like this it is never worth a woman s while to show regret for her injustice for all she gets by it is an accusation of want of delicacy indeed i don t accuse you of that � i warmly tenderly thank you for your kindness in coming here to see me well perhaps you do but i am now in i cannot a tell what mood � i will not tell what mood for it would be more than i ought this finding you out is a piece of weakness that i shall not repeat and i have only one thing more to say i have served you badly george i know that but it is never too late to mend and i have come back to you however i shall never run after you again trust me for that for it is not the woman s part still before i go that there may be no mistake as to my meaning and misery on us for want of a word tu add this that if you want to marry me as you once did you must say so for i am here to be asked it would be superfluous to s reply and the remainder of the scene between the pair let it suffice that half an hour afterwards when the sun had almost gone 