rd Lufton, regretting
that he had been unable to induce his lordship to come to Gatherum
Castle.

"But you had a diversion at the lecture, I am told," continued the
duke. "There was a second performer, was there not, who almost
eclipsed poor Harold Smith?" And then Mr. Sowerby gave an amusing
sketch of the little Proudie episode.

"It has, of course, ruined your brother-in-law for ever as a
lecturer," said the duke, laughing.

"If so, we shall feel ourselves under the deepest obligations to Mrs.
Proudie," said Mr. Sowerby. And then Harold Smith himself came up and
received the duke's sincere and hearty congratulations on the success
of his enterprise at Barchester. Mark Robarts had now turned away,
and his attention was suddenly arrested by the loud voice of Miss
Dunstable, who had stumbled across some very dear friends in her
passage through the rooms, and who by no means hid from the public
her delight upon the occasion.

"Well--well--well!" she exclaimed, and then she seized upon a very
quiet-looking, well-dressed, attractive young woman who was walking
towards her, in company with a gentleman. The gentleman and lady, as
it turned out, were husband and wife. "Well--well--well! I hardly
hoped for this." And then she took hold of the lady and kissed her
enthusiastically, and after that grasped both the gentleman's hands,
shaking them stoutly.

"And what a deal I shall have to say to you!" she went on. "You'll
upset all my other plans. But, Mary, my dear, how long are you going
to stay here? I go--let me see--I forget when, but it's all put down
in a book upstairs. But the next stage is at Mrs. Proudie's. I shan't
meet you there, I suppose. And now, Frank, how's the governor?" The
gentleman called Frank declared that the governor was all right--"mad
about the hounds, of course, you know."

"Well, my dear, that's better than the hounds being mad about him,
like the poor gentleman they've put into a statue. But talking of
hounds, Frank, how badly they manage their foxes at Chaldicotes! I
was out hunting all one day--"

"You out hunting!" said the lady called Mary.

"And why shouldn't I go out hunting? I'll tell you what, Mrs. Proudie
was out hunting too. But they didn't catch a single fox; and, if you
must have the truth, it seemed to me to be rather slow."

"You were in the wrong division of the county," said the gentleman
called Frank.

"Of course I was. When I really want to practise hunting I'll go to
G