Lucy listened, mostly in silence, returning him her earnest sympathy.

Had Lucy Tempest been a little older in ideas, or had she been by nature and rearing less entirely single-minded, she might not have sat unrestrainedly with him, going into the room at any moment, and stopping there, as she would had he been her brother.

Lucy was getting to covet the companionship of Lionel very much--too much, taking all things into consideration.

It never occurred to her that, for that very reason, she might do well to keep away.

She was not sufficiently experienced to define her own sensations; and she did not surmise that there was anything inexpedient or not perfectly orthodox in her being so much with Lionel.