Wealth, honour, and steadfast love were laid together at her feet.

Would she gather them up?
Would she be willing to give herself into the keeping of this faithful heart which had learnt so well "to love one maiden and to cleave to her ?" The doubt seemed absurd, yet it came and haunted the mother's meditations.

She knew perfectly that Lucia had no thought of Maurice but as a friend or brother.

She could not quite understand how it had always continued so, but she knew it had.
She had never been willing to think of her child's regard for Percy as likely to be a lasting feeling, and at most times she really did consider it only as a thing of the past; yet to-night it came before her tiresomely, and she remembered what Mrs.Bellairs had told her lately about his marriage.

She resolved once to ask Maurice whether he had heard anything of it, but, on second thoughts, she decided that it was better to leave the matter alone.
There was yet another person on whom Maurice's coming had made a most lively impression.