"
"Supposing Oliver entirely declines to take your view?--supposing he
marries Miss Mallory?"
"He will not break my heart," she said, drawing a quicker breath. "He
will get over it."
"But if he persists?"
"He must take the consequences. I cannot aid and abet him."
"And the girl herself? She has accepted him. She is young, innocent,
full of tender and sensitive feeling. Is it possible that you should not
weigh her claim against your fears and scruples?"
"I feel for her most sincerely."
Sir James suddenly threw out a restless foot, which caught Lady Lucy's
fox terrier, who was snoozing under the tea-table. He hastily
apologized, and the speaker resumed:
"But, in my opinion, she would do a far nobler thing if she regarded
herself as bound to some extent to bear her mother's burden--to pay her
mother's debt to society. It may sound harsh--but is it? Is a dedicated
life necessarily an unhappy life? Would not everybody respect and revere
her? She would sacrifice herself, as the Sister of Mercy does, or the
missionary, and she would find her reward. But to enter a family with an
unstained record, bearing with her such a name and such associations,
would be, in my opinion, a wrong and selfish act!"
Lady Lucy drew herself to her full height.
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