olph!" with kisses of farewell and wreathed smiles;
and she perceived, somehow by a sort of second sight, that they added to
each other, "Oh, what a bore it has been; nobody worth meeting," and
"how thankful I am it's over!" which was indeed what Miss Minnie and
Miss Edith said. If Lucy had seen a little deeper she would have known
that this too was a sort of conventional falsity which the young ladies
said to each other, according to the fashion of the day, without any
meaning to speak of; but one must have learned a great many lessons
before one comes to that.

Then Jock, who had been woke up in quite a different way, took leave of
MTutor, that god of his old idolatry, without being able to refrain from
some semblance of the old absorbing affection.

"I am so sorry you are not coming with me, old fellow," Mr. Derwentwater
said.

Jock replied, "So am I," with an effort, as if firing a parting volley
in honour of his friend: but then turned gloomily with an expression of
relief. "I'm glad he's gone, Lucy."

"Then you did not want to go with him, Jock?"

"I wouldn't have gone for anything. I've just got to that--that I can't
bear him," cried Jock.

And Lucy, in the midst of the ruins, felt her head go round: though here
too it was the falsehood that was fictitious, had she but known. It is
not, however, in the nature of such a shock that any of those
alleviating circumstances which modify the character of human sentiment
can be taken into account. Lucy had taken everything for gospel in the
first chapter of existence; she had believed what everybody said; and
like every other human soul, after such a discovery as she had made, she
went to the opposite extremity now--not wittingly, not voluntarily--but
the pillars of the earth were shaken, and nothing stood fast.

They went up to town next day. In the meantime she had little or no
intercourse with the Contessa, who was preparing for the journey and
absorbed in letter-writing, making known to everybody whom she could
think of, the existence of the little house in Mayfair. It is doubtful
whether she so much as observed any difference in the demeanour of her
hostess, having in fact the most unbounded confidence in Lucy, whom she
did not believe capable of any such revulsion of feeling. Bice was more
clear-sighted, but she thought Milady was displeased with her own
proceedings, and sought no further for a cause. And the only thing the
girl could do was to endeavour by