"
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?"
"Very much attracted. Up to this morning I thought that she would make
an excellent wife for Oliver. But I have been acting, of course,
throughout under a false impression."
"Is it your feeling that to marry her would injure Oliver's career?"
"Certainly. But that is not what weighs with me most heavily."
"I did not for a moment believe that it would. However, let us take the
career first. This is how I look at it.
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