e about it till to-morrow morning,"
said Fanny. But Lucy felt that this saying nothing more about it till
to-morrow morning would be tantamount to an acceptance on her part
of Lord Lufton's offer. Mrs. Robarts knew, and Mr. Robarts also now
knew, the secret of her heart; and if, such being the case, she
allowed Lord Lufton to come there with the acknowledged purpose of
pleading his own suit, it would be impossible for her not to yield.
If she were resolved that she would not yield, now was the time for
her to stand her ground and make her fight. "Do not go, Fanny; at
least not quite yet," she said.

"Well, dear?"

"I want you to stay while I tell Mark. He must not let Lord Lufton
come here to-morrow."

"Not let him!" said Mrs. Robarts. Mr. Robarts said nothing, but he
felt that his sister was rising in his esteem from minute to minute.

"No; Mark must bid him not come. He will not wish to pain me when it
can do no good. Look here, Mark;" and she walked over to her brother,
and put both her hands upon his arm. "I do love Lord Lufton. I had no
such meaning or thought when I first knew him. But I do love him--I
love him dearly;--almost as well as Fanny loves you, I suppose. You
may tell him so if you think proper--nay, you must tell him so, or he
will not understand me. But tell him this, as coming from me: that I
will never marry him, unless his mother asks me."

"She will not do that, I fear," said Mark, sorrowfully.

"No; I suppose not," said Lucy, now regaining all her courage.
"If I thought it probable that she should wish me to be her
daughter-in-law, it would not be necessary that I should make such a
stipulation. It is because she will not wish it; because she would
regard me as unfit to--to--to mate with her son. She would hate me,
and scorn me; and then he would begin to scorn me, and perhaps would
cease to love me. I could not bear her eye upon me, if she thought
that I had injured her son. Mark, you will go to him now; will you
not? and explain this to him;--as much of it as is necessary. Tell
him, that if his mother asks me I will--consent. But that as I know
that she never will, he is to look upon all that he has said as
forgotten. With me it shall be the same as though it were forgotten."
Such was her verdict, and so confident were they both of her
firmness--of her obstinacy Mark would have called it on any other
occasion,--that they neither of them sought to make her alter it.

"You will go to him