Mrs. Robarts thought—that nothing had passed between her and Lord Lufton but words of most trivial import, and yet she now accused herself of falsehood, and declared that that falsehood was the only thing which she did not regret!
"I hope not," said Mrs. Robarts. "If you did, you were very unlike yourself."
"But I did, and, were he here again, speaking to me in the same way, I should repeat it. I know I should. If I did not, I should have all the world on me. You would frown on me, and be cold. My darling Fanny, how would you look if I really displeasured you?"
"I don't think you will do that, Lucy?"
"But if I told him the truth I should, should I not? Speak, now. But no, Fanny, you need not speak. It was not the fear of you, no, nor even of her, though Heaven knows that her terrible glumness would be quite unendurable."
"I can not understand you, Lucy. What truth or what untruth can you have told him if, as you say, there has been nothing between you but ordinary conversation?"
Lucy then got up from the sofa and walked twice the length of the room before she spoke. Mrs. Robarts had all the ordinary curiosity—I was going to say of a woman, but I mean to say of humanity, and she had, moreover, all the love of a sister. She was both curious and anxious, and remained sitting where she was, silent, and with her eyes fixed on her companion.
"Did I say so?" Lucy said at last. "No, Fanny, you have mistaken me; I did not say that. Ah! yes, about the cow and the dog. All that was true. I was telling you of what his soft words had been while I was becoming such a fool. Since that he has said more."
"What more has he said, Lucy?"
"I yearn to tell you, if only I can trust you;" and Lucy knelt down at the feet of Mrs. Robarts, looking up into her face and smiling through the remaining drops of her tears. "I would fain tell you, but I do not know you yet—whether you are quite true. I could be true—true against all the world, if my friend told me. I will tell you, Fanny, if you say that you can be true. But if you doubt yourself, if you must whisper all to Mark, then let us be silent."
There was something almost awful in this to Mrs. Ro-
