"But why are they allowed to try her then?"
"Oh, papa will tell you that."
"I never like to bother your papa about law business." Particularly not, Mrs. Furnival, when he has a pretty woman for his client!
"My wonder is that she should make herself so unhappy about it," continued Sophia. "It seems that she is quite broken down."
"But won't she have to go and sit in the court,—with all the people staring at her?"
"That won't kill her," said Sophia, who felt that she herself would not perish under any such process. "If I was sure that I was in the right, I think that I could hold up my head against all that. But they say that she is crushed to the earth."
"Poor thing!" said Mrs. Furnival. "I wish that I could do anything for her." And in this way they talked the matter over very comfortably.
Two or three days after this Sophia Furnival was sitting alone in the drawing-room in Harley Street, when Spooner answered a double knock at the door, and Lucius Mason was shown up stairs. Mrs. Furnival had gone to make her peace in Red Lion Square, and there may perhaps be ground for supposing that Lucius had cause to expect that Miss Furnival might be seen at this hour without interruption. Be that as it may, she was found alone, and he was permitted to declare his purpose unmolested by father, mother, or family friends.
"You remember how we parted at Noningsby," said he, when their first greetings were well over.
"Oh, yes; I remember it very well. I do not easily forget words such as were spoken then."