other ways; worse than this, he doubted whether he had not in honour
bound himself tacitly to Lucy that very day.

The fit of repentance was upon him, and he tossed and turned from side
to side upon his uneasy bed. But, toss and turn as he would, he could
not undo his night's work. There remained nothing for him but to carry
it out, and make the best of it; and he strove to deceive his conscience
with the hope that Lucy Tempest, in her girlish innocence, had not
understood his hinted allusions to her becoming his wife; that she had
looked upon his snatched caresses as but trifling pastime, such as he
might offer to a child. Most unjustifiable he now felt those hints,
those acts to have been, and his brow grew red with shame at their
recollection. One thing he did hope, hope sincerely--that Lucy did not
care for him. That she liked him very much, and had been on most
confidential terms with him, he knew; but he did hope her liking went no
deeper. Strange sophistry! how it will deceive the human heart! how
prone we are to admit it! Lionel was honest enough in his hope now: but,
not many hours before, he had been hugging his heart with the delusion
that Lucy did love him.

Towards morning he dropped into an uneasy sleep. He awoke later than his
usual hour from a dream of Frederick Massingbird. Dreams play us strange
fantasies. Lionel's had taken him to that past evening, prior to
Frederick Massingbird's marriage, when he had sought him in his chamber,
to offer a word of warning against the union. He seemed to be living the
interview over again, and the first words when he awoke, rushing over
his brain with minute and unpleasant reality, were those he had himself
spoken in reference to Sibylla:--"Were she free as air this moment, were
she to come to my feet, and say 'Let me be your wife,' I should tell her
that the whole world was before her to choose from, save myself. She can
never again be anything to me."

Brave words: fully believed in when they were spoken: but what did
Lionel think of them now?

He went down to breakfast. He was rather late, and found they had
assembled. Lady Verner, who had just heard for the first time of
Lionel's presence in the house, made no secret now of Lionel's note to
her. Therefore Decima and Lucy knew that the "invasion" of Verner's
Pride had been caused by Mrs. Massingbird.

She--Lady Verner--scarcely gave herself time to greet Lionel before she
commenced upon it. She did not conceal