“Thank you,” said Dr. Lucian.
She stood for a moment, hesitating, and then said with a sort of rush: “And for goodness’ sake, don’t think too much about what I said. It seemed fairer to tell you, but I don’t suppose there’s anything in it, for a moment, and it would take a lot to make me marry again, especially out of my own class. Once bit twice shy,” concluded Mrs. Aviolet.
Neither she nor Maurice Lucian referred again to their conversation during the remaining days of Rose’s visit.
If there were a certain consciousness latent between them, Rose forgot it speedily enough, in her preoccupation with the question of Cecil.
“I think I shall go down to Hurst,” she said.
The Lucians, unlike the Aviolets, never proffered advice.
Consequently, Rose felt desirous of it.
“Don’t you think I’d better?”
“For your own sake, or for Cecil’s?”
“Both, I suppose. I can’t bear to think of him unhappy.”