hough we have been neighbours for a month and more."
Fanny made her excuses and introduced them, and then they went on
till they came to Framley Gate, Lord Lufton talking to them both, and
Fanny answering for the two, and there they stopped for a moment.

"I am surprised to see you alone," Mrs. Robarts had just said; "I
thought that Captain Culpepper was with you."

"The captain has left me for this one day. If you'll whisper I'll
tell you where he has gone. I dare not speak it out loud, even to the
woods."

"To what terrible place can he have taken himself? I'll have no
whisperings about such horrors."

"He has gone to--to--but you'll promise not to tell my mother?"

"Not tell your mother! Well, now you have excited my curiosity! where
can he be?"

"Do you promise, then?"

"Oh, yes! I will promise, because I am sure Lady Lufton won't ask me
as to Captain Culpepper's whereabouts. We won't tell; will we, Lucy?"

"He has gone to Gatherum Castle for a day's pheasant-shooting. Now,
mind, you must not betray us. Her ladyship supposes that he is shut
up in his room with a toothache. We did not dare to mention the name
to her." And then it appeared that Mrs. Robarts had some engagement
which made it necessary that she should go up and see Lady Lufton,
whereas Lucy was intending to walk on to the parsonage alone.

"And I have promised to go to your husband," said Lord Lufton; "or
rather to your husband's dog, Ponto. And I will do two other good
things--I will carry a brace of pheasants with me, and protect Miss
Robarts from the evil spirits of the Framley roads." And so Mrs.
Robarts turned in at the gate, and Lucy and his lordship walked off
together. Lord Lufton, though he had never before spoken to Miss
Robarts, had already found out that she was by no means plain. Though
he had hardly seen her except at church, he had already made himself
certain that the owner of that face must be worth knowing, and was
not sorry to have the present opportunity of speaking to her. "So you
have an unknown damsel shut up in your castle," he had once said to
Mrs. Robarts. "If she be kept a prisoner much longer, I shall find it
my duty to come and release her by force of arms." He had been there
twice with the object of seeing her, but on both occasions Lucy had
managed to escape. Now we may say she was fairly caught, and Lord
Lufton, taking a pair of pheasants from the gamekeeper, and swinging
them over his shoulder, walked off with