And if he don't come right at all, it is the way
of the world, and the game has to be played over again. Lucy Morris, no
doubt, had lived a life too retired for the learning of such useful
forbearance, but Frank Greystock was quite a proficient. He still
considered himself to be true to Lucy Morris, with a truth seldom found in
this degenerate age--with a truth to which he intended to sacrifice some
of the brightest hopes of his life--with a truth which, after much
thought, he had generously preferred to his ambition. Perhaps there was
found some shade of regret to tinge the merit which he assumed on this
head, in respect of the bright things which it would be necessary that he
should abandon; but if so, the feeling only assisted him in defending his
present conduct from any aspersions his conscience might bring against it.
He intended to marry Lucy Morris, without a shilling, without position, a
girl who had earned her bread as a governess, simply because he loved her.
It was a wonder to himself that he, a lawyer, a man of the world, a member
of Parliament, one who had been steeped up to his shoulders in the ways of
the world, should still be so pure as to be capable of such, a sacrifice.
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