She had never said a word
to encourage the scheming of Lady Bellair; neither, on the other
hand, had she ever said a word to discourage her hopes, or give her
ground for doubting the acceptableness of her cherished project.
Hence Lady Bellair had naturally come to regard the two as almost
affianced. But Florimel's aversion to the idea of marriage, and her
horror at the thought of the slightest whisper of what was between
her and Lenorme, increased together.
There were times too when she asked herself in anxious discomfort
whether she was not possibly a transgressor against a deeper and
simpler law than that of station--whether she was altogether
maidenly in the encouragement she had given and was giving to the
painter. It must not be imagined that she had once visited him
without a companion, though that companion was indeed sometimes
only her maid--her real object being covered by the true pretext
of sitting for her portrait, which Lady Bellair pleased herself
with imagining would one day be presented to Lord Liftore. But she
could not, upon such occasions of morning judgment as this, fail
to doubt sorely whether the visits she paid him, and the liberties
which upon fortunate occasions she allowed him, were such as could
be justified on any ground other than that she was prepared to give
him all.
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