Ought she to trust to that chance?
But then her courage might fail if he came over just like any ordinary visitor; and her young cousins from Chester were coming; and if they should be there, it would be another hindrance.
"And, oh! I must see him again," she said, "and find out whether we are not to be brother and sister any more." She said "brother and sister" still, as she had done long ago; but she knew very well in her heart now, that _that_ had never been the relationship Maurice desired.

And so she tore her note into little bits, and remained helpless, but rebelling against her helplessness.

In this humour she went to her mother's room.
Mrs.Costello was not yet up.

Lucia knelt down by the bedside, and laid Mr.Leigh's letter beside her.
"Mamma, I am very sorry," she said; "I think Mr.Leigh must have been very unhappy before he would write to you so." "I agree with you.

He is not a man to take fright without cause, either." "Why do you say, 'to take fright ?'" "Why do I say so?
Are you such a child still, that you cannot understand a man like Maurice, always so tender towards women--Quixotically so, indeed--making himself believe that he is doing quite right in marrying a poor girl in Miss Landor's position, when, in fact, he is doing a great wrong?
It is a double wrong to her and to himself; and one for which he would be certain to suffer, whether she did or not.