‘You must exercise your own judgment,’ said Mrs Dale.  Then Lily got up from her chair and walked slowly out of the room, and went to her mother’s chamber.  The thoughts which passed through Mrs Dale’s mind while her daughter was reading the letter were very sad.  She could find no comfort anywhere.  Lily, she had told herself, would surely give way to this man’s renewed expressions of affection, and she, Mrs Dale herself, would be called upon to give her child to a man whom she could neither love nor respect;—­who, for aught she knew, she could never cease to hate.  And she could not bring herself to believe that Lily could be happy with such a man.  As for her own life, desolate as it would be—­she cared little for that.  Mothers know that their daughters will leave them.  Even widowed mothers, mothers with but one child left—­such a one as was this mother—–­are aware that they will be left alone, and they can bring themselves to welcome the sacrifice of themselves with something of satisfaction.  Mrs Dale and Lily had, indeed, of late become bound together especially, so that the mother had been justified in regarding the link which joined them as being firmer than that by which most daughters are bound to their mothers;—­but in all that she would have found no regret.  Even now, in these very days, she was hoping that Lily might yet be brought to give herself to John Eames.  But she could not, after all that was come and gone, be happy in thinking that Lily should be given to Adolphus Crosbie.

When Mrs Dale went upstairs to her own room before dinner Lily was not there; nor were they alone together again that evening except for a moment, when Lily, as usual, went into her mother’s room when she was undressing.  But neither of them then said a word about the letter.  Lily during dinner and throughout the evening had borne herself well, giving no sign of special emotion, keeping to herself entirely her own thoughts about the proposition made to her.  And afterwards she had progressed diligently with the fabrication of Mr Crawley’s shirts, as though she had no such letter in her pocket.  And yet there was not a moment in which she was not thinking of it.  To Grace, just before she went to bed, she did say one word.  ’I wonder whether it can ever come to a person to be so placed that there can be no doing right, let what will be done;—­that, do or not do, as you may, it must be wrong?’

‘I hope you are not in such a condition,’ said Grace.

‘I am something near it,’ said Lily, ’but perhaps if I look long enough I shall see the light.’

‘I hope that it will be a happy light at last,’ said Grace, who thought that Lily was referring only to John Eames.

At noon on the next day Lily had still said nothing to her mother about the letter; and then what she said was very little.  ’When must you answer Mr Crosbie, mamma?’

‘When, my dear?’

‘I mean how long may you take?  It need not be today.’