Chapter 23

"MAY I GO?"

The very day after this, Octavia opened the fourth trunk. She had had it
brought down from the garret, when there came a summons on the door, and
Lucia Gaston appeared.

Lucia was very pale; and her large, soft eyes wore a decidedly frightened
look. She seemed to have walked fast, and was out of breath. Evidently
something had happened.

"Octavia," she said, "Mr. Dugald Binnie is at Oldclough."

"Who is he?"

"He is my grand-uncle," explained Lucia tremulously. "He has a great deal
of money. Grandmamma"--She stopped short, and colored, and drew her
slight figure up. "I do not quite understand grandmamma, Octavia," she
said. "Last night she came to my room to talk to me; and this morning she
came again, and--oh!" she broke out indignantly, "how could she speak to
me in such a manner!"

"What did she say?" inquired Octavia.

"She said a great many things," with great spirit. "It took her a long
time to say them, and I do not wonder at it. It would have taken me a
hundred years, if I had been in her place. I--I was wrong to say I did
not understand her: I did--before she had finished."

"What did you understand?"

"She was afraid to tell me in plain words.--I never saw her afraid
before, but she was afraid. She has been arranging my future for me, and
it does not occur to her that I dare object. That is because she knows I
am a coward, and despises me for it--and it is what I deserve. If I make
the marriage she chooses, she thinks Mr. Binnie will leave me his money.
I am to run after a man who does not care for me, and make myself
attractive, in the hope that he will condescend to marry me because Mr.
Binnie may leave me his money. Do you wonder that it took even Lady
Theobald a long time to say that?"

"Well," remarked Octavia, "you won't do it, I suppose. I wouldn't worry.
She wants you to marry Mr. Barold, I suppose."

Lucia started.

"How did you guess?" she exclaimed.

"Oh! I always knew it. I didn't guess." And she smiled ever so faintly.
"That is one of the reasons why she loathes me so," she added.

Lucia thought deeply for a moment: she recognized, all at once, several
things she had been mystified by before.

"Oh, it is! It is!" she said. "And she has thought of it all the time,
when I never suspected her."

Octavia smiled a little again. Lucia sat thinking, her hands clasped
tightly.

"I am glad I came here," she said, at length. "I _am_ angry now, and I
see things more clearly. If