.

"Is the carriage there, Fanny?" said Lady Lufton. "It is almost time
for us to think of returning home."

Mrs. Robarts said that the carriage was standing within twenty yards
of the door.

"Then I think we will make a start," said Lady Lufton. "Have you
succeeded in persuading Miss Crawley to come over to Framley in
April?"

Mrs. Robarts made no answer to this, but looked at Grace; and Grace
looked down upon the ground.

"I have spoken to Mrs. Crawley," said Lady Lufton, "and they will
think of it." Then the two ladies took their leave, and walked out to
their carriage.

"What does she say about your plan?" Mrs. Robarts asked.

"She is too broken-hearted to say anything." Lady Lufton answered.
"Should it happen that he is convicted, we must come over and take
her. She will have no power to resist us in anything."

CHAPTER LI

Mrs. Dobbs Broughton Piles Her Fagots

[Illustration]

The picture still progressed up in Mrs. Dobbs Broughton's room, and
the secret was still kept, or supposed to be kept. Miss Van Siever
was, at any rate, certain that her mother had heard nothing of it,
and Mrs. Broughton reported from day to day that her husband had not
as yet interfered. Nevertheless, there was in these days a great
gloom upon the Dobbs Broughton household, so much so that Conway
Dalrymple had more than once suggested to Mrs. Broughton that the
work should be discontinued. But the mistress of the house would not
consent to this. In answer to these offers, she was wont to declare
in somewhat mysterious language, that any misery coming upon herself
was a matter of moment to nobody,--hardly even to herself, as she was
quite prepared to encounter moral and social death without delay, if
not an absolute physical demise; as to which latter alternative, she
seemed to think that even that might not be so far distant as some
people chose to believe. What was the cause of the gloom over the
house neither Conway Dalrymple nor Miss Van Siever understood, and
to speak the truth Mrs. Broughton did not quite understand the cause
herself. She knew well enough, no doubt, that her husband came home
always sullen, and sometimes tipsy, and that things were not going
well in the City. She had never understood much about the City, being
satisfied with an assurance that had come to her in the early days
from her friends, that there was a mine of wealth in Hook Court, from
whence would always come for her use, house and fur