’Why, to be sure—­I know it was very different.  Papa was so old, and there were us,’ faltered Lucy, ’but I meant, you would know how it all is—­how those things—­’

’Stop, Lucy, am I to understand by those things, that you wish me to believe you and Mr. Cavendish Dusautoy are on the game terms as—­No, I can’t say it.’

‘I don’t know what you mean,’ said Lucy, growing frightened, ’I never thought there could be such an uproar about my just going out riding.’

’You have led me to infer so much more, that it becomes my duty to have an explanation, at least,’ she added, thinking this sounded cold, ‘I should have hoped you would have given me your confidence.’

‘O, but you always would make game of him!’ cried Lucy.

’Not now; this is much too serious, if you have been led to believe that his attentions are not as I supposed, because you are the only girl about here whom he thinks worthy of his notice.’

‘It’s a great deal more,’ said Lucy, with more feeling and less vanity than had yet been apparent.

‘And what has he been making you think, my poor child?’ said Albinia.  ’I know it is very distressing, but it would be more right and safe if I knew what it amounts to.’

‘Not much after all,’ said Lucy, her tone implying the reverse, and though her cheeks were crimson, not averse to the triumph of the avowal, nor enduring as much embarrassment as her auditor, ’only he made me sure of it—­he said—­(now, mamma, you have made me, so I must) that he had changed his opinion of English beauty—­you know, mamma.  And another time he said he had wandered Europe over to—­to find loveliness on the banks of the Baye.  Wasn’t it absurd?  And he says he does not think it half so much that a woman should be accomplished herself, as that she should be able to appreciate other people’s talents—­and once he said the Principessa Bianca di Moretti would be very much disappointed.’

‘Well, my dear,’ said Albinia, kindly putting her arm round Lucy’s waist, ’perhaps by themselves the things did not so much require to be told.  I can hardly blame you, and I wish I had been more on my guard, and helped you more.  Only if he seems to care so little about disappointing this lady might he not do the same by you?’

‘But she’s an Italian, and a Roman Catholic,’ exclaimed Lucy.

Albinia could not help smiling, and Lucy, perceiving that this was hardly a valid excuse for her utter indifference towards her Grandison’s Clementina, continued, ’I mean—­of course there was nothing in it.’

’Very possibly; but how would it be, if by-and-by he told somebody that Miss Kendal would be very much disappointed?’

‘O, mamma,’ cried Lucy, hastily detaching herself, ‘you don’t know!’

‘I cannot tell, my poor Lucy,’ said Albinia.  ’I fear there must be grief and trouble any way, if you let yourself attend to him, for you know, even if he were in earnest, it would not be right to think of a person who has shown so little wish to be good.’