That my granddaughter, a girl reared and taught and watched and guarded by me, should have no more dignity, no more modesty, or womanly feeling, than a barmaid at an inn!' Lesbia began to cry.
'I don't see why a barmaid, should not be a good woman, or why it should be a crime to fall in love,' she said, in a voice broken by sobs.
'You need not speak to me so unkindly.

I am not going to marry Mr.
Hammond.' 'Oh, you are not?
that is very good of you.

I am deeply grateful for such an assurance.' 'But I like him better than anyone I ever saw in my life before.' 'You have seen to many people.

You have had such a wide area for choice.' 'No; I know I have been kept like a nun in a convent: but I don't think when I go into the world I shall ever see anyone I should like better than Mr.Hammond.' 'Wait till you have seen the world before you make up your mind about that.

And now, Lesbia, leave off talking and thinking like a child; look me in the face and listen to me, for I am going to speak seriously; and with me, when I am in earnest, what is said once is said for ever.' Lady Maulevrier grasped her granddaughter's arm with long slender fingers which held it as tightly as the grasp of a vice.