"But--not far ?" "That depends on my own whim," he replied, watching her attentively.

"I shall certainly be absent from England for a year, perhaps longer.

But, Lucy,--you were such a little pet of mine in your childhood that I cannot help taking an interest in you now you are grown up.

That is, I think, quite natural.

And I should like to feel that you have some good and safe idea of your own happiness in life before I leave you." She stared,--her face fell.
"I have no ideas at all," she answered after a pause, the corners of her red mouth drooping in petulant, spoilt-child fashion, "and if you go away I shall have no pleasures either!" He smiled.
"I'm sorry you take it that way," he said.