y
my son; so you need not regard it as going out. Fanny here will tell
you that stepping over to Framley Court is no more going out, than
when you go from one room to another in the parsonage. Is it, Fanny?"
Fanny laughed, and said that that stepping over to Framley Court
certainly was done so often that perhaps they did not think so much
about it as they ought to do.

"We consider ourselves a sort of happy family here, Miss Robarts,
and are delighted to have the opportunity of including you in the
_menage_." Lucy gave her ladyship one of her sweetest smiles, but
what she said at that moment was inaudible. It was plain, however,
that she could not bring herself even to go as far as Framley Court
for her dinner just at present. "It was very kind of Lady Lufton,"
she said to Fanny; "but it was so very soon, and--and--and if they
would only go without her, she would be so happy." But as the object
was to go with her--expressly to take her there--the dinner was
adjourned for a short time--_sine die_.

CHAPTER XI

Griselda Grantly

It was nearly a month after this that Lucy was first introduced to
Lord Lufton, and then it was brought about only by accident. During
that time Lady Lufton had been often at the parsonage, and had in a
certain degree learned to know Lucy; but the stranger in the parish
had never yet plucked up courage to accept one of the numerous
invitations that had reached her. Mr. Robarts and his wife had
frequently been at Framley Court, but the dreaded day of Lucy's
initiation had not yet arrived. She had seen Lord Lufton in church,
but hardly so as to know him, and beyond that she had not seen him at
all. One day, however--or rather, one evening, for it was already
dusk--he overtook her and Mrs. Robarts on the road walking towards
the vicarage. He had his gun on his shoulder, three pointers were at
his heels, and a gamekeeper followed a little in the rear.

"How are you, Mrs. Robarts?" he said, almost before he had overtaken
them. "I have been chasing you along the road for the last half-mile.
I never knew ladies walk so fast.".

"We should be frozen if we were to dawdle about as you gentlemen do,"
and then she stopped and shook hands with him. She forgot at the
moment that Lucy and he had not met, and therefore she did not
introduce them.

"Won't you make me known to your sister-in-law!" said he taking off
his hat, and bowing to Lucy. "I have never yet had the pleasure of
meeting her, t