It must
be remembered that our gallant, gay Lothario had passed some
considerable number of days with Miss Grantly in his mother's house,
and the danger of such contiguity must be remembered also. Lord
Lufton was by no means a man capable of seeing beauty unmoved or of
spending hours with a young lady without some approach to tenderness.
Had there been no such approach, it is probable that Lady Lufton
would not have pursued the matter. But, according to her ideas on
such subjects, her son Ludovic had on some occasions shown quite
sufficient partiality for Miss Grantly to justify her in her hopes,
and to lead her to think that nothing but opportunity was wanted.
Now, at this ball of Mrs. Smith's, he did, for a while, seem to
be taking advantage of such opportunity, and his mother's heart
was glad. If things should turn out well on this evening she would
forgive Mrs. Harold Smith all her sins. And for a while it looked
as though things would turn out well. Not that it must be supposed
that Lord Lufton had come there with any intention of making love to
Griselda, or that he ever had any fixed thought that he was doing so.
Young men in such matters are so often without any fixed thoughts!
They are such absolute moths. They amuse themselves with the light of
the beautiful candle, fluttering about, on and off, in and out of the
flame with dazzled eyes, till in a rash moment they rush in too near
the wick, and then fall with singed wings and crippled legs, burnt
up and reduced to tinder by the consuming fire of matrimony.
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