that a boy were to write home from school,
saying that another boy had promised to come and stay with him, that
other having given no such promise--what a very naughty boy would
that first boy be in the eyes of his pastors and masters!

That little conversation between Lord Lufton and his mother--in which
nothing was said about his lordship's parliamentary duties--took
place on the evening before he started for London. On that occasion
he certainly was not in his best humour, nor did he behave to his
mother in his kindest manner. He had then left the room when she
began to talk about Miss Grantly; and once again in the course of the
evening, when his mother, not very judiciously, said a word or two
about Griselda's beauty, he had remarked that she was no conjurer,
and would hardly set the Thames on fire. "If she were a conjurer,"
said Lady Lufton, rather piqued, "I should not now be going to take
her out in London. I know many of those sort of girls whom you call
conjurers; they can talk for ever, and always talk either loudly or
in a whisper. I don't like them, and I am sure that you do not in
your heart."

"Oh, as to liking them in my heart--that is being very particular."

"Griselda Grantly is a lady, and as such I shall be happy to have her
with me in town. She is just the girl that Justinia will like to have
with her."

"Exactly," said Lord Lufton. "She will do exceedingly well for
Justinia." Now this was not good-natured on the part of Lord Lufton;
and his mother felt it the more strongly, inasmuch as it seemed to
signify that he was setting his back up against the Lufton-Grantly
alliance. She had been pretty sure that he would do so in the event
of his suspecting that a plot was being laid to catch him; and now
it almost appeared that he did suspect such a plot. Why else that
sarcasm as to Griselda doing very well for his sister?

And now we must go back and describe a little scene at Framley,
which will account for his Lordship's ill-humour and suspicions, and
explain how it came to pass that he so snubbed his mother. This scene
took place about ten days after the evening on which Mrs. Robarts and
Lucy were walking together in the parsonage garden, and during those
ten days Lucy had not once allowed herself to be entrapped into
any special conversation with the young peer. She had dined at
Framley Court during that interval, and had spent a second evening
there; Lord Lufton had also been up at the parsonag