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called her his own dear friend Lucy. All this had been very sweet to her, but very poisonous also. She had declared to herself very frequently that her liking for this young nobleman was as purely a feeling of mere friendship as was that of her brother; and she had professed to herself that she would give the lie to the world's cold sarcasms on such subjects. But she had now acknowledged that the sarcasms of the world on that matter, cold though they may be, are not the less true; and having so acknowledged, she had resolved that all close alliance between herself and Lord Lufton must be at an end. She had come to a conclusion, but he had come to none; and in this frame of mind he was now there with the object of reopening that dangerous friendship which she had had the sense to close. "And so you are going to-morrow?" she said, as soon as they were both within the drawing-room. "Yes: I'm off by the early train to-morrow morning, and Heaven knows when we may meet again." "Next winter, shall we not?" "Yes, for a day or two, I suppose. I do not know whether I shall pass another winter here. Indeed, one can never say where one will be." "No, one can't; such as you, at least, cannot. I am not of a migratory tribe myself." "I wish you were." "I'm not a bit obliged to you. Your nomad life does not agree with young ladies." "I think they are taking to it pretty freely, then. We have unprotected young women all about the world." "And great bores you find them, I suppose?" "No; I like it. The more we can get out of old-fashioned grooves the better I am pleased. I should be a Radical to-morrow--a regular man of the people--only I should break my mother's heart." "Whatever you do, Lord Lufton, do not do that." "That is why I have liked you so much," he continued, "because you get out of the grooves." "Do I?" "Yes; and go along by yourself, guiding your own footsteps; not carried hither and thither, just as your grandmother's old tramway may chance to take you." "Do you know I have a strong idea that my grandmother's tramway will be the safest and the best after all? I have not left it very far, and I certainly mean to go back to it." "That's impossible! An army of old women, with coils of ropes made out of time-honoured prejudices, could not draw you back." "No, Lord Lufton, that is true. But one--" and then she stopped herself. She could not tell him that one loving mother, anxious for h
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