But I could not but trust it when he came again--to my
brother, and made his proposal to him. I don't know whether you will
understand me, Lady Lufton; but a girl placed as I am feels ten times
more assurance in such a tender of affection as that, than in one
made to herself, at the spur of the moment, perhaps. And then you
must remember that I--I myself--I loved him from the first. I was
foolish enough to think that I could know him and not love him."
"I saw all that going on," said Lady Lufton, with a certain
assumption of wisdom about her; "and took steps which I hoped would
have put a stop to it in time."
"Everybody saw it. It was a matter of course," said Lucy, destroying
her ladyship's wisdom at a blow. "Well; I did learn to love him, not
meaning to do so; and I do love him with all my heart. It is no use
my striving to think that I do not; and I could stand with him at
the altar to-morrow and give him my hand, feeling that I was doing
my duty by him, as a woman should do. And now he has told you of
his love, and I believe in that as I do in my own--" And then for a
moment she paused.
"But, my dear Miss Robarts--" began Lady Lufton. Lucy, however, had
now worked herself up into a condition of power, and would not allow
her ladyship to interrupt her in her speech.
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