Alison, too, came twice to see how the patient was; but here, somehow, his brother's manner and words are jarred upon Neil, for there seemed a want of sympathy and a suggestion of Alison's feeling free and independent, now that the autocrat of their house, hold had been cast down from his throne. Just before morning, too, Aunt Anne had been in, ready to assert that she might just as well have sat up and kept her nephew company, for she had not slept a wink, her eyes stubbornly refusing to support her declaration, for they looked as if they had been tightly closed for hours. As the morning progressed, and the injured man still lay in a stupor-like sleep, visitors and messengers arrived with inquiries about his state. Beck was one of the first, and he came in the hope that Isabel would contrive to see him for a few minutes. He was not disappointed, for he had not been seated many minutes before Isabel came into the drawing room quite by accident, to fetch some work left on one of the chairs, and in an instant her hands were clasped in those of the young sailor. "No, no!" she cried excitedly. "You know what papa said." "Yes," he said earnestly; "and it would be cowardly and mean of me to take advantage of his lying there helpless. See, I will try and act like a gentleman,"--he dropped her hands--"I only want to tell you, Isabel, that, come what may, I shall keep to my course. Some day, when he is well again--" "Then you think he will get well?" she cried eagerly. "Yes; why not?" responded Beck. "I say, some day, when he is well again, he may alter and not be so set against me, and I am going to wait till then." "Yes," she said with a sigh. "I am not going to doubt you for a moment, Isabel. I don't think, after all these years, you could turn from me; and when your father sees really what is for your happiness, he will, I believe, relent." Tom Beck had no opportunity to say more, for just then Aunt Anne bustled into the room. "You, Mr Beck?" she said. "Why, I thought it was your father." "He is going to try and get across, by and by, in the invalid chair. He is not up yet, and honestly I do not think he is fit to leave his bed; but he says he must, and he will." "Poor man!" sighed Aunt Anne. "Oh, dear me, Mr Beck, what a deal of-- Isabel, my dear, don't wait." "No, Aunt," said the girl quietly; and then, to herself, "Papa must have told Aunt Anne not to let me be along with Tom, or she would not have spoken like that." Then aloud-- "Good-bye, Mr Beck;" and she held out her hand, which was taken for a moment and then dropped, as she turned and left the room. The vicar's son had hardly left the house an hour when Sir Cheltnam rode over to make inquiries, and was leaving his card, when Alison came into the hall and went out on the steps to speak to him. "Can't ask you in," said Alison. "The governor's very bad." "Got a doctor down from London, haven't you?" "We've had one in consultation, but he has gone back."