"I do not mean actually dying tonight, or going to die tomorrow; but that she is dying by slow degrees there is no doubt. It may be weeks yet, or months; perhaps years: I cannot tell."
"Where is she?"
"Still at Lady Sarah's. Just now she is making a short stay with her mother at Netherleigh. She went home also in the spring for a month, and when she came back Sarah was so shocked at the change in her that she called in medical advice, and we have been trying to nurse her up. It is all of no use: she grows thinner and weaker."
"You are still at Lady Sarah's also?"
"Oh, to be sure; I am a fixture there," laughed Frances.
"Are the Hopes here tonight?"
"Yes: or will be. They went out somewhere to dinner, and expected to be late."
"Does my uncle ever speak of me less resentfully?"
"Not he. I think his storming over it has only made his suspicion stronger. Not a week passes but he begins again about that detestable bracelet. He is unalterably persuaded that you took it, and no one must dare to put in a word in your defence."
"And does your sister honour me with the same belief?" demanded the young man, bitterly.