He went. There was a wide window-seat in the passage, and he dropped down upon it, utterly worn out and wretched. "What have I done?" he asked himself. "What made me do it? She loved me, and I have been a brute to her. If I had been a devil, could I have tortured her more?" Presently Mrs. Middleton came to him: "She cannot see you now, but she is better." He looked up at her as he sat: "Aunt Harriet, I meant it for the best. Say what you like: I was a brute, I suppose, but I thought I was doing right." "What do you mean?" Her tone was gentler: she detected the misery in his. Percival took her hand and laid it on his forehead. "You can't think I meant to be cruel to our Sissy," he said. "You will let me speak to her?" She softly pushed back his hair. After all, he was the man Sissy loved. "What was it?" she asked: "what did you do?" He looked down. "I'm going to marry Miss Lisle," he said. She started away from him: "You told her that? God forgive you, Percival!" "I should have been a liar if I hadn't." "Couldn't you let her die in peace? It is such a little while! Couldn't you have waited till she was in her grave?" "Will she see me? Just one word, Aunt Harriet." And yet while he pleaded he did not know what the one word was that he would say. Only he felt that he must see her once more. "Not now," said Mrs. Middleton. "My poor darling shall not be tortured any more. Later, if she wishes it, but not now. She could not bear it." "But you will ask her to see me later?" he entreated. "I must see her." "What is she to you? She is all the world to me, and she shall be left in peace. It is all that I can do for her now. You have been cruel to her always--always. She has been breaking her heart for you: she lived through last night with the hope of your coming. Oh, Percival, God knows I wish we had never called you away from Miss Lisle!" "Don't say that." "Go back to her," said Aunt Harriet, "and leave my darling to me. We were happy at Brackenhill till you came there." He sprang to his feet: "Aunt Harriet! have some mercy! You know I would die if it could make Sissy any happier." "And Miss Lisle?" she said. He turned away with a groan, and, leaning against the wall, put his hand over his eyes. Mrs. Middleton hesitated a moment, but her haste to return to Sissy triumphed over any relenting feelings, and she left him, pausing only at the door to make sure of her calmness. Noon came and passed. Sissy had spoken once to bid them take the needlework away. "I've done with it," she said. Otherwise she was silent, and only looked at them with gentle, apathetic eyes when they spoke to her. Dr. Grey came and went again. On his way out he noticed Percival, looked keenly at him, but said nothing.