"Oh, mamma, don't
say that." "I certainly do wish that I had never seen her." "Indeed
she has been a grievous trouble to you, mamma," said Miss Boreham,
sympathetically.
"Brighton! What nonsense!" said Lady Laura.
"Of course it's nonsense. Fancy going to Brighton! And then they
have proposed Switzerland. If you could only hear Augusta talking in
rapture of a month among the glaciers! And I feel so ungrateful. I
believe they would spend three months with me at any horrible place
that I could suggest,--at Hong Kong if I were to ask it,--so intent
are they on taking me away from metropolitan danger."
"But you will not go?"
"No!--I won't go. I know I am very naughty; but I can't help feeling
that I cannot be good without being a fool at the same time. I must
either fight my aunt, or give way to her. If I were to yield, what a
life I should have;--and I should despise myself after all."
"And what is the special danger to be feared now?"
"I don't know;--you, I fancy. I told her that if she went, I should
go to you. I knew that would make her stay."
"I wish you would come to me," said Lady Laura.
"I shouldn't think of it really,--not for any length of time."
"Why not?"
"Because I should be in Mr. Kennedy's way."
"You wouldn't be in his way in the least.
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