It was possible--to look the worst in the face boldly--that he might not get the doctor's permission to leave Browndown before the time arrived for Lucilla's return to the rectory.

In this event, he could only entreat her to be patient, and to remember that though he was gaining ground but slowly, he was still getting on.

Under these circumstances, Lucilla was naturally vexed and dejected.

She had never (she wrote), from her girlhood upward, spent such a miserable time with her aunt as she was spending now.
On reading this letter, I instantly smelt something wrong.
I corresponded with Oscar almost as frequently as with Lucilla.

His last letter to me flatly contradicted his last letter to his promised wife.