called her his
own dear friend Lucy. All this had been very sweet to her, but very
poisonous also. She had declared to herself very frequently that
her liking for this young nobleman was as purely a feeling of mere
friendship as was that of her brother; and she had professed to
herself that she would give the lie to the world's cold sarcasms on
such subjects. But she had now acknowledged that the sarcasms of the
world on that matter, cold though they may be, are not the less true;
and having so acknowledged, she had resolved that all close alliance
between herself and Lord Lufton must be at an end. She had come to
a conclusion, but he had come to none; and in this frame of mind he
was now there with the object of reopening that dangerous friendship
which she had had the sense to close.

"And so you are going to-morrow?" she said, as soon as they were both
within the drawing-room.

"Yes: I'm off by the early train to-morrow morning, and Heaven knows
when we may meet again."

"Next winter, shall we not?"

"Yes, for a day or two, I suppose. I do not know whether I shall pass
another winter here. Indeed, one can never say where one will be."

"No, one can't; such as you, at least, cannot. I am not of a
migratory tribe myself."

"I wish you were."

"I'm not a bit obliged to you. Your nomad life does not agree with
young ladies."

"I think they are taking to it pretty freely, then. We have
unprotected young women all about the world."

"And great bores you find them, I suppose?"

"No; I like it. The more we can get out of old-fashioned grooves the
better I am pleased. I should be a Radical to-morrow--a regular man
of the people--only I should break my mother's heart."

"Whatever you do, Lord Lufton, do not do that."

"That is why I have liked you so much," he continued, "because you
get out of the grooves."

"Do I?"

"Yes; and go along by yourself, guiding your own footsteps; not
carried hither and thither, just as your grandmother's old tramway
may chance to take you."

"Do you know I have a strong idea that my grandmother's tramway will
be the safest and the best after all? I have not left it very far,
and I certainly mean to go back to it."

"That's impossible! An army of old women, with coils of ropes made
out of time-honoured prejudices, could not draw you back."

"No, Lord Lufton, that is true. But one--" and then she stopped
herself. She could not tell him that one loving mother, anxious for
h