‘You may have rightly interpreted the frequency of my visits here. In fact, I feel sure that you have attributed them—and truly—to my admiration for Miss Raeburn.’
‘I have hardly attributed them to admiration for myself,’ she remarked, with a certain grim humour.
Crauford looked rather shocked.
‘Have you said anything to my niece?’ she inquired, after a moment.
‘I have waited for your approval.’
‘That is proper enough.’
Her eyes fixed themselves, seeing beyond Crauford’s clean, solemn face, beyond the panelled walls, into the dull future when Cecilia should have gone out from her daily life. How often her spirits had flagged during the months she had been absent in Edinburgh!
‘Cecilia shall do as she likes. I will not influence her in any way,’ she said at last.
‘But you are willing, Lady Eliza?’
‘——Yes.’