"I don't know yet, my dear. I will speak to your papa before dinner." But as Mrs. Burton had been usually autocratic in the management of her own daughters, Florence was aware that her mother simply required a little time before she made up her mind. "It is not that I want to go to London—for the pleasure of it, mamma."
"I know that, my dear."
"Nor yet merely to see him!—though of course I do long to see him!"
"Of course you do;—why shouldn't you?"
"But Cecilia is so very prudent, and she thinks that it will be better. And she would not have pressed it, unless Theodore had thought so too!"
"I thought Theodore would have written to me!"
"But he writes so seldom."
"I expected a letter from him now, as I had written to him."
"About Harry, do you mean?"
"Well;—yes. I did not mention it, as I was aware I might make you uneasy. But I saw that you were unhappy at not hearing from him."