I
suppose all the cases did not terminate fatally. Will you confess?"
"I have nothing to tell you," Flora said, very demurely and meekly,
only for once her eyes betrayed her. "Mamma took me down into
Devonshire, where we have an aunt or two, for sea-breezes and seclusion.
I rather liked at first having nothing on earth to do, and nothing--yes,
I understand--really nothing to think about. I used to sleep a great
deal, and then drive a little obstinate pony, to see views. But I don't
care much about views--do you? Then mamma was always wanting me to help
her look for shells and wild-flowers; and the rocks hurt my feet, and
the bushes never would leave me alone in the woods." She shuddered
slightly here.
"The Bushes! a Devonshire family of that name, I presume?" Guy
interrupted, with intense gravity. "How wrong of them! They are very
ill-regulated young men down in those parts, I believe."
"Don't be absurd; I never saw a creature for months between fifteen and
fifty. Are not those ages safe?" (A shake of the head from Livingstone.)
"I began to be very unhappy; I had no one to tease; my aunts are too
good-natured, and mamma is used to it. At last I had the greatest mind
to do something desperate--to write to you, for instance--merely to see
the household's horror when your answer came.
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