That pleasant abode to which she had long looked forward that she
might have a welcome there in coming years should be among fields
and trees, not in some narrow London street. Lily must now become a
city lady; but Bell would still be left to her, and it might still
be hoped that Bell would find for herself some country home.
Since the day on which Lily had first told her mother of her
engagement, Mrs Dale had found herself talking much more fully and
more frequently with Bell than with her younger daughter. As long as
Crosbie was at Allington this was natural enough. He and Lily were of
course together, while Bell remained with her mother. But the same
state of things continued even after Crosbie was gone. It was not
that there was any coolness or want of affection between the mother
and daughter, but that Lily's heart was full of her lover, and that
Mrs Dale, though she had given her cordial consent to the marriage,
felt that she had but few points of sympathy with her future
son-in-law. She had never said, even to herself, that she disliked
him; nay, she had sometimes declared to herself that she was fond of
him.
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