mily."

"Exactly; and so he was. I do not remember that I ever heard an
unkind word from him, There was not a harsh tone in his voice. And
he was generous as the day." Lucy, we have said, was not generally
demonstrative, but now, on this subject, and with this absolute
stranger, she became almost eloquent.

"I do not wonder that you should feel his loss, Miss Robarts."

"Oh, I do feel it. Mark is the best of brothers, and, as for Fanny,
she is too kind and too good to me. But I had always been specially
my father's friend. For the last year or two we had lived so much
together!"

"He was an old man when he died, was he not?"

"Just seventy, my lord."

"Ah, then he was old. My mother is only fifty, and we sometimes call
her the old woman. Do you think she looks older than that? We all say
that she makes herself out to be so much more ancient than she need
do."

"Lady Lufton does not dress young."

"That is it. She never has, in my memory. She always used to wear
black when I first recollect her. She has given that up now; but she
is still very sombre; is she not?"

"I do not like ladies to dress very young, that is, ladies of--of--"

"Ladies of fifty, we will say?"

"Very well; ladies of fifty, if you like it."

"Then I am sure you will like my mother."

They had now turned up through the parsonage wicket, a little gate
that opened into the garden at a point on the road nearer than the
chief entrance. "I suppose I shall find Mark up at the house?" said
he.

"I dare say you will, my lord."

"Well, I'll go round this way, for my business is partly in the
stable. You see I am quite at home here, though you never have seen
me before. But, Miss Robarts, now that the ice is broken, I hope that
we may be friends." He then put out his hand, and when she gave him
hers he pressed it almost as an old friend might have done. And,
indeed, Lucy had talked to him almost as though he were an old
friend. For a minute or two she had forgotten that he was a lord and
a stranger--had forgotten also to be stiff and guarded as was her
wont. Lord Lufton had spoken to her as though he had really cared to
know her; and she, unconsciously, had been taken by the compliment.
Lord Lufton, indeed, had not thought much about it--excepting as
thus, that he liked the glance of a pair of bright eyes, as most
other young men do like it. But, on this occasion, the evening had
been so dark, that he had hardly seen Lucy's eyes at all.