which friends endeavor to spare one another's feelings are pretty
disloyalties. I am frank with you. Would you have me otherwise?"

"Of course not. I have no right to be offended."

"Not the least. Now add to that formal admission a sincere assurance
that you ARE not offended."

"I assure you I am not," said Lucian, with melancholy resignation.

They had by this time reached Charlotte Street, and Lydia tacitly
concluded the conference by turning towards the museum, and
beginning to talk upon indifferent subjects. At the corner of
Russell Street he got into a cab and drove away, dejectedly
acknowledging a smile and wave of the hand with which Lydia tried to
console him. She then went to the national library, where she forgot
Lucian. The effect of the shock of his proposal was in store for
her, but as yet she did not feel it; and she worked steadily until
the library was closed and she had to leave. As she had been sitting
for some hours, and it was still light, she did not take a cab, and
did not even walk straight home. She had heard of a bookseller in
Soho who had for sale a certain scarce volume which she wanted; and
it occurred to her that the present was a good opportunity to go in
search of him. Now, there was hardly a capital in western Europe
that she did not know better than London. She had an impression that
Soho was a region of quiet streets and squares, like Bloomsbury. Her
mistake soon became apparent; but she felt no uneasiness in the
narrow thoroughfares, for she was free from the common prejudice of
her class that poor people are necessarily ferocious, though she
often wondered why they were not so. She got as far as Great