In
such case, when that blow should fall, Lucy would require very different
treatment than might be expected for her from the hands of Lady
Linlithgow. She would fade and fall to the earth like a flower with an
insect at its root. She would be like a wounded branch into which no sap
would run. With such misfortune and wretchedness possibly before her, Lady
Fawn could not endure the idea that Lucy should be turned out to encounter
it all beneath the cold shade of Lady Linlithgow's indifference. "My
dear," she said, "let bygones be bygones. Come down and meet Lord Fawn.
Nobody will say anything. After all, you were provoked very much, and
there has been quite enough about it."
This, from Lady Fawn, was almost miraculous--from Lady Fawn, to whom her
son had ever been the highest of human beings! But Lucy had told the tale
to her lover, and her lover approved of her going. Perhaps there was
acting upon her mind some feeling, of which she was hardly conscious, that
as long as she remained at Fawn Court she would not see her lover. She had
told him that she could make herself supremely happy in the simple
knowledge that he loved her.
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