'
'I hope I do,' said Claude; 'I could hardly believe that one of the
little ones who cannot remember him, could have referred to him in
that way--but for you!'
'Him?' said Lilias.
'I do not like to mention his name to one who regards him so
lightly,' said Claude. 'Think over what passed, if you are
sufficiently come to yourself to remember it.'
After a little pause Lily said in a subdued voice, 'Claude, I hope
you do not believe that I was thinking of what really happened when I
said that.'
'Pray what were you thinking of?'
'The abstract view of Eleanor's character.'
'Abstract nonsense!' said Claude. 'A fine demonstration of the rule
of love, to go about the world slandering your sister!'
'To go about the world! Oh! Claude, it was only Robert, one of
ourselves, and Alethea, to whom I tell everything.'
'So much the worse. I always rejoiced that you had no foolish young
lady friend to make missish confidences to.'
'She is no foolish young lady friend,' said Lilias, indignant in her
turn; 'she is five years older than I am, and papa wishes us to be
intimate with her.'
'Then the fault is in yourself,' said Claude. 'You ought not to have
told such things if they were true, and being utterly false--'
'But, Claude, I cannot see that they are false.
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