She was very happy with Harry Heathcote.

There never was a brother-in-law so good! But, after all, what is a brother-in-law, though he be the very best?
Kate had already begun to fancy that a house of her own and a husband of her own would be essential to her happiness.

But then a man can not be expected to make an offer with a broken collar-bone--certainly can not do so just when the doctor has arrived to set the bone.
Late on in the day, when the doctor had gone, and Medlicot was, according to instructions, sitting out on the veranda in an armchair, and his mother was with him, and while Harry was sleeping as though he never meant to be awake again, Kate managed to say a few words to her sister.

It will be understood that the ladies' hands were by no means empty.

The Christmas dinner was in course of preparation, and Sing Sing, that villainous Chinese cook, had absconded.