But after all I may be doing him injustice.
Did you know that he really wanted to carry her away with him ?" "He _did_! And she refused him ?" "She refused him, when she knew her own position, and the impossibility of her marrying him." "Dear Mrs.Costello, what complications! I begin to understand now all that has puzzled me." "You had some suspicion of the truth ?" "Of part of it.

I don't like Edward Percy, and I was afraid he was gaining an influence with Lucia which would make her unhappy.

I even thought at one time that he was really in earnest, but from some news we received a few days ago I set that down as a mistake." "News of him?
What was it ?" "That he is engaged to a lady whom his father wished him to marry; and that they are to be married almost immediately." "I am very glad," Mrs.Costello said, "and there is nothing to be surprised about.

He was tempted for the moment by a pretty face, but he was not a man to waste time in thinking about a girl who had refused him." She said this; but she thought in her heart, 'He is not like Maurice.

If Lucia had refused him so, he would have known that she loved him still; and while she did so, he would have had no thoughts for any other.' She asked, however, "Did you hear from _him_ that this was true ?" "No.