’Make no noise; help me.’ She assisted him to remove the master upstairs. He sent her for the doctor, and then tapped at the door of the parlour that he might break the news to Cicely. Two days later, Mr. Battishill was sitting up in his own room, decidedly on the mend. The attack had been slight, nevertheless it was a seizure, a first—and such are warnings of others in store. Cicely came down into the hall to meet Herring, who had walked up to West Wyke from Zeal, where he was staying. She went up to him, and he noticed that there were tears in her eyes. ’Mr. Herring,’ she said, ’my father is better. I am glad to have a moment in which I can leave him and speak with you alone.’ ’I am entirely at your service,’ he said. She looked into his eyes with her frank, bright smile—a luminous smile that flickered through a veil of tears. ’I know that perfectly, Mr. Herring, and have no scruple in making use of you. Here you have remained in our neighbourhood, instead of going on your way about your own concerns; you have spent the greater part of every day with us, instead of seeking to amuse yourself—all because you knew that your assistance was needed. That is not the way with many young men. Another in your place would have taken his valise and gone by the next coach after the accident, and left Mirelle to shift for herself. You have been everything that is kind and considerate to Mirelle—I beg her pardon—the Countess Garcia.’ A smile twinkled in her pleasant face. ’And this emboldens me to appeal to you in my trouble.’ Herring was about to protest his own readiness, but she put up her hand to stop him, and went on:— ’You have been foolishly generous, Mr. Herring. You have advanced sixty pounds to my father, to stave off the ruin that is impending. It is of no use. Do not venture to do this again. You ought not to have done it even once. However, let me clear off the debt in part immediately. I have butter money—not the entire sum, not even a half.’ ’Dear Miss Battishill, I will not take it.’