What might happen if the elder sister's influence came to an end?
Thyrza loved her: how Lydia would have laughed at anyone who hinted that the love could ever weaken! But it was not a guard against every danger.
It was inevitable that Lydia should have hoped that her sister might marry early.

And one man she knew in whom--she scarcely could have told you why--her confidence was so strong that she would freely have entrusted him with Thyrza's fate.

Thyrza could not bring herself to think of him as a husband.

It was with Ackroyd that Lydia's thoughts were busy as she lay wakeful.

Before to-night she had not pondered so continuously on what she knew of him.