Albinia could not help smiling, and Lucy, perceiving that this was hardly a valid excuse for her utter indifference towards her Grandison’s Clementina, continued, ‘I mean—of course there was nothing in it.’
‘Very possibly; but how would it be, if by-and-by he told somebody that Miss Kendal would be very much disappointed?’
‘O, mamma,’ cried Lucy, hastily detaching herself, ‘you don’t know!’
‘I cannot tell, my poor Lucy,’ said Albinia. ‘I fear there must be grief and trouble any way, if you let yourself attend to him, for you know, even if he were in earnest, it would not be right to think of a person who has shown so little wish to be good.’
Lucy stood for a few moments before the sense reached her mind, then she dropped into a chair, and exclaimed,
‘I see how it is! You’ll treat him as grandpapa treated Captain Pringle, but I shall break my heart, quite!’ and she burst into tears.
‘My dear, your father and I will do our best for your happiness, and we would never use concealment. Whatever we do shall be as Christian people working together, not as tyrants with a silly girl.’
Lucy was pleased, and let Albinia take her hand.
‘Then I will write to decline the horse. It would be far too marked.’
‘But oh, mamma! you wont keep him away!’