Chapter 19

AN EXPERIMENT.

Much to her own astonishment, Lucia found herself allowed new liberty.
She was permitted to spend the afternoon frequently with Octavia; and on
several occasions that young lady and Miss Bassett were invited to
partake of tea at Oldclough in company with no other guest than Francis
Barold.

"I don't know what it means, and I think it must mean something," said
Lucia to Octavia; "but it is very pleasant. I never was allowed to be so
intimate with any one before."

"Perhaps," suggested Octavia sagely, "she thinks, that, if you see me
often enough, you will get sick of me, and it will be a lesson to you."

"The more I see of you," answered Lucia with a serious little air, "the
fonder I am of you. I understand you better. You are not at all like what
I thought you at first, Octavia."

"But I don't know that there's much to understand in me."

"There is a great deal to understand in you," she replied. "You are a
puzzle to me often. You seem so frank, and yet one knows so little about
you after all. For instance," Lucia went on, "who would imagine that you
are so affectionate?"

"Am I affectionate?" she asked.

"Yes," answered Lucia: "I am sure you are very affectionate. I have found
it out gradually. You would suffer things for any one you loved."

Octavia thought the matter over.

"Yes," she said at length, "I would."

"You are very fond of Miss Bassett," proceeded Lucia, as if arraigning
her at the bar of justice. "You are _very_ fond of your father; and I am
sure there are other people you are very fond of--_very_ fond of indeed."

Octavia pondered seriously again.

"Yes, there are," she remarked; "but no one would care about them here,
and so I'm not going to make a fuss. You don't want to make a fuss over
people you l-like."

"_You_ don't," said Lucia. "You are like Francis Barold in one way, but
you are altogether different in another. Francis Barold does not wish to
show emotion; and he is so determined to hedge himself around, that one
can't help suspecting that he is always guarding himself against one. He
seems always to be resenting any interference; but you do not appear to
care at all, and so it is not natural that one should suspect you. I did
not suspect you."

"What do you suspect me of now?"

"Of thinking a great deal," answered Lucia affectionately. "And of being
very clever and very good."

Octavia was silent for a few moments.

"I think," she said