come to her
there? She went on, and the big footman stood with the carriage door
open. She stepped up almost unconsciously, and, without knowing how
she got there, she found herself seated by Lady Lufton. To tell the
truth her ladyship also was a little at a loss to know how she was to
carry through her present plan of operations. The duty of beginning,
however, was clearly with her, and therefore, having taken Lucy by
the hand, she spoke. "Miss Robarts," she said, "my son has come home.
I don't know whether you are aware of it." She spoke with a low,
gentle voice, not quite like herself, but Lucy was much too confused
to notice this.

"I was not aware of it," said Lucy. She had, however, been so
informed in Fanny's letter, but all that had gone out of her head.

"Yes; he has come back. He has been in Norway, you know,--fishing."

"Yes," said Lucy.

"I am sure you will remember all that took place when you came to me,
not long ago, in my little room upstairs at Framley Court." In answer
to which, Lucy, quivering in every nerve, and wrongly thinking that
she was visibly shaking in every limb, timidly answered that she did
remember. Why was it that she had then been so bold, and now was so
poor a coward?

"Well, my dear, all that I said to you then I said to you thinking
that it was for the best. You, at any rate, will not be angry with me
for loving my own son better than I love any one else."

"Oh, no," said Lucy.

"He is the best of sons, and the best of men, and I am sure that he
will be the best of husbands."

Lucy had an idea, by instinct, however, rather than by sight, that
Lady Lufton's eyes were full of tears as she spoke. As for herself
she was altogether blinded, and did not dare to lift her face or to
turn her head. As for the utterance of any sound, that was quite out
of the question.

"And now I have come here, Lucy, to ask you to be his wife."

She was quite sure that she heard the words. They came plainly to
her ears, leaving on her brain their proper sense, but yet she could
not move or make any sign that she had understood them. It seemed
as though it would be ungenerous in her to take advantage of such
conduct and to accept an offer made with so much self-sacrifice. She
had not time at the first moment to think even of his happiness,
let alone her own, but she thought only of the magnitude of the
concession which had been made to her. When she had constituted Lady
Lufton the arbiter of her