I had long had a fear at the back of my mind that she might need my cottage for some benevolent scheme. Jimmy, who had always been fond of me, had let it to me at a nominal rent in his easygoing widower days, because the mild climate suited my rheumatism, and my society suited him. Round the cottage had gradually sprung up what many, though not Gertrude, considered a beautiful garden. "No travelling at all," she said, "no movement of any kind. And I am afraid, Anne, I can't hold out the slightest hope of a marriage for you." "Since I turned forty I had begun to fear I might remain unwedded," I remarked. "No sign of marriage," she said, exploring the cart wheel, "and there must have been considerable lethargy in the past when openings of this kind did occur. Your Venus seems for many years to have been in square to Neptune, and that would tend to make these chances slip away from you." "I endeavoured to pounce on them," I said humbly. "My dear mother's advice to me as to matrimony was 'clutch while you can'--I assure you I left no stone unturned." "In that case you probably turned the wrong ones," she said judicially. "And I am sorry to tell you that I don't see any good fortune coming to you either, and rather bad health. In short, you will have a severe illness next spring. March especially will be a bad month for you. Your Moon will be going through Virgo, the sign of sickness." It generally was. I don't mean my moon, but March. I rarely got through the winter without an attack of rheumatism at the end of it. All in a moment, as it seemed to me, after a few springs and autumns and attacks of rheumatism, Gertrude's two children were leaving the nursery, and Joan was returning home from school to be introduced into society. Gertrude began to look round for a governess who would also be a companion for Joan. I helped her to find one. It was a case of nepotism. I recommended my own niece, Dulcibella, who had just returned from the completion of her education at Dresden. Dulcibella's impecunious parents had, of course, both died and left her to battle with life--and me, alone, her only heritage being a wild rose prettiness and dark eyes like an Alderney calf's. She was well educated. I had been able to achieve that owing to the cheap rate at which I lived, thanks to Jimmy. But I had thoroughly made up my mind that I was not going to have her twirling her thumbs under my roof. She was close on eighteen, and must now earn her own living. She was staying with me on a visit when Gertrude told me of her requirements. Gertrude's two stout children were at that moment sitting on the lawn blowing soap bubbles with Dulcibella. Jimmy had been engaged in the same pursuit as his offspring five minutes earlier, but had departed. Gertrude looked at the group critically. "Your niece does not look strong," she said dubiously. "She isn't." "Or energetic." "She's not." "Is she really firm with children?"