‘Not much after all,’ said Lucy, her tone implying the reverse, and though her cheeks were crimson, not averse to the triumph of the avowal, nor enduring as much embarrassment as her auditor, ‘only he made me sure of it--he said--(now, mamma, you have made me, so I must) that he had changed his opinion of English beauty--you know, mamma. And another time he said he had wandered Europe over to--to find loveliness on the banks of the Baye. Wasn’t it absurd? And he says he does not think it half so much that a woman should be accomplished herself, as that she should be able to appreciate other people’s talents--and once he said the Principessa Bianca di Moretti would be very much disappointed.’ ‘Well, my dear,’ said Albinia, kindly putting her arm round Lucy’s waist, ‘perhaps by themselves the things did not so much require to be told. I can hardly blame you, and I wish I had been more on my guard, and helped you more. Only if he seems to care so little about disappointing this lady might he not do the same by you?’ ‘But she’s an Italian, and a Roman Catholic,’ exclaimed Lucy. Albinia could not help smiling, and Lucy, perceiving that this was hardly a valid excuse for her utter indifference towards her Grandison’s Clementina, continued, ‘I mean--of course there was nothing in it.’ ‘Very possibly; but how would it be, if by-and-by he told somebody that Miss Kendal would be very much disappointed?’ ‘O, mamma,’ cried Lucy, hastily detaching herself, ‘you don’t know!’ ‘I cannot tell, my poor Lucy,’ said Albinia. ‘I fear there must be grief and trouble any way, if you let yourself attend to him, for you know, even if he were in earnest, it would not be right to think of a person who has shown so little wish to be good.’ Lucy stood for a few moments before the sense reached her mind, then she dropped into a chair, and exclaimed, ‘I see how it is! You’ll treat him as grandpapa treated Captain Pringle, but I shall break my heart, quite!’ and she burst into tears. ‘My dear, your father and I will do our best for your happiness, and we would never use concealment. Whatever we do shall be as Christian people working together, not as tyrants with a silly girl.’ Lucy was pleased, and let Albinia take her hand. ‘Then I will write to decline the horse. It would be far too marked.’ ‘But oh, mamma! you wont keep him away!’ ‘I shall not alter our habits unless I see cause. He is much too young for us to think seriously of what he may have said; and I entreat you to put it out of your mind, for it would be very sad for you to fix your thoughts on him, and then find him not in earnest, and even if he were, you know it would be wrong to let affection grow up where there is no real dependence upon a person’s goodness.’