She raised the candle, and the two looked intently into the glass at his fingers, as he applied the strip. He met with scant success, for it stuck to his thumb and curled backwards like a shaving. He made another and more careful attempt to place it, but, with the callous obstinacy often displayed by inanimate things, it refused to lie flat. The two pairs of eyes met in the looking-glass. ‘I cannot make it hold,’ said he. ‘It is not wet enough, and I am too clumsy.’ His arm ached where it had been hit below the elbow; it was difficult to keep it steady. ‘I can do it,’ said Cecilia, a certain resolute neutrality in her voice. ‘Hold the candle, sir.’ She took the strip from him, and, dipping it afresh in the water, laid it deftly across his cheek-bone. As her cool fingers touched his hot cheek he dropped his eyes from her face to the fine handkerchief which she had tucked into her bosom, and which rose and fell with her breathing. She took it out, and held it pressed against the plaster. ‘You will need two pieces,’ she said. ‘Keep this upon the place while I cut another strip.’ He had never been ordered in this way by a girl before. Caprice he had experience of, and he had known the exactingness of spoilt women, but Cecilia’s impersonal commanding of him was new, and it did not displease him. He told himself, as he stood in front of her, that, were he to describe her, he would never call her a girl. She was essentially a woman. ‘That is a much better arrangement,’ observed Captain Somerville, as Gilbert entered the dining-room alone. ‘I did not know you were such a good surgeon, Speid.’ ‘Don’t praise me. I was making such a clumsy job of it that Miss Raeburn came to my help; she has mended it so well that a few days will heal it, I expect.’ ‘You will have a fine scar, my lad,’ said the sailor. ‘That doesn’t matter. I assure you, the thing is of no consequence. It is not really bad.’ ‘It is quite bad enough,’ said Lady Eliza. ‘You think far too much of it, ma’am.’ ‘At any rate, sit down and help yourself to some wine. I have not half thanked you for your good offices.’ ‘I fancy he is repaid,’ said Somerville dryly, glancing at the strips of plaster. Lady Eliza had ordered a carriage to be got ready to take Speid and the sailor home, and Captain Somerville had sent a message to Kaims by Jimmy Stirk, telling his family to expect his return in the morning, as he had accepted Gilbert’s suggestion that he should remain at Whanland for the night. He looked kindly on this arrangement, for he was over sixty, and it was a long time since he had exerted himself so much. While they stood in the hall bidding Lady Eliza good-night, Cecilia came downstairs. She had not followed Gilbert to the dining-room. She held out her hand to him as he went away. ‘Thank you,’ said he, looking at her and keeping it for a moment.