"Good Heavens, Lady Lucy! Can you--do you--suppose anything else?"
Lady Lucy paused before replying.
"I cannot suppose it--since both you and my son--and Mr. Ferrier--have so high an opinion of her. But it is a strange and mysterious thing that she should have remained in this complete ignorance all these years--and a cruel thing, of course--to everybody concerned."
Sir James nodded.
"I agree. It was a cruel thing, though it was done, no doubt, from the tenderest motives. The suffering was bound to be not less but more, sooner or later."
"Miss Mallory is very greatly to be pitied. But it is, of course, clear that my son proposed to her, not knowing what it was essential that he should know."
Sir James paused.
"We are old friends, Lady Lucy--you and I," he said at last, with deliberation; and as he spoke he bent forward and took her hand. "I am sure you will let me ask you a few questions."
Lady Lucy made no reply. Her hand--without any movement of withdrawal or rebuff--gently dropped from his.
"You have been, I think, much attracted by Miss Mallory herself?"