Lady Fawn would no more allow her to go away, depending for her future on the mere chance of some promiscuous engagement, than she would have turned one of her own daughters out of the house in the same forlorn condition.

Lady Fawn was a tower of strength to Lucy.

But then a tower of strength may at any moment become a dungeon.
Frank Greystock was not her lover.

Ah,--there was the worst of it all! She had given her heart and had got nothing in return.

She conned it all over in her own mind, striving to ascertain whether there was any real cause for shame to her in her own conduct.