Towards morning he dropped into an uneasy sleep. He awoke later than his
usual hour from a dream of Frederick Massingbird. Dreams play us strange
fantasies. Lionel's had taken him to that past evening, prior to
Frederick Massingbird's marriage, when he had sought him in his chamber,
to offer a word of warning against the union. He seemed to be living the
interview over again, and the first words when he awoke, rushing over
his brain with minute and unpleasant reality, were those he had himself
spoken in reference to Sibylla:--"Were she free as air this moment, were
she to come to my feet, and say 'Let me be your wife,' I should tell her
that the whole world was before her to choose from, save myself. She can
never again be anything to me."
Brave words: fully believed in when they were spoken: but what did
Lionel think of them now?
He went down to breakfast. He was rather late, and found they had
assembled. Lady Verner, who had just heard for the first time of
Lionel's presence in the house, made no secret now of Lionel's note to
her. Therefore Decima and Lucy knew that the "invasion" of Verner's
Pride had been caused by Mrs.
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