"What an awful fate it would have been for you!"
"I should only have clung to him the closer, Theresa," was the low answer. And it must be premised that neither Lucy nor any one else had the slightest notion of Miss Blake's regard for Karl.
Miss Blake glanced at her watch. She had two minutes yet. She turned and stood before Lucy. In her unselfish judgment--and she did try to judge unselfishly always--a union with Captain Andinnian now, though she herself might stoop to put up with it in her great love, would be utterly beneath Lucy Cleeve.
"You--you do not mean to imply that you would marry Captain Andinnian, as things are?"
"I would. My father and mother permitting."
"You unhappy girl! Where's your pride?"
"I did not say I was going to do it, Theresa. You put an imaginary proposition; one that is altogether impossible, and I replied to that. I do not expect ever to see Karl Andinnian again in this world."
Something in the despairing accent touched Miss Blake, in spite of her wild jealousy. "You seem very poorly to-day, Lucy," she gently said. "Are you in pain?"
"No," replied Lucy, with a sigh: "not in pain. But I don't seem to get much better, do I, Theresa? I wish I could, for papa and mamma's sake."