'
'But you are not a mother nor yet an aunt, and you have to do just
what I tell you. And don't I know that you trust me in all things?
And am I not trustworthy?'
'I think you are trustworthy.'
'I know what my duty is and I mean to do it. No one shall ever
have to say of me that I have given way to self-indulgence. I
couldn't help his coming here, you know.'
That same night, after Miss Cassewary had gone to bed, when the
moon was high in the heavens and the world round her was all
asleep, Lady Mabel again wandered out to the lake, and again
seated herself on the same rock, and there sat thinking of her
past life and trying to think of that before her. It is so much
easier to think of the past than of the future,--to remember what
has been than to resolve what shall be! She had reminded him of
the offer which he had made and repeated to her more than once,--to
share with her all his chances in life. There would have been
almost no income for them. All the world would have been against
her. She would have caused his ruin. Her light on the matter had
been so clear that it had not taken her very long to decide that
such a thing must not be thought of.
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