said this, in a
slow, sorrowful, and severe tone, Lady Lufton got up and took her
departure. Of course Mrs. Robarts did not let her go without assuring
her that she did sympathize with her,--did love her as she ever
had loved her. But wounds cannot be cured as easily as they may be
inflicted, and Lady Lufton went her way with much real sorrow at her
heart. She was proud and masterful, fond of her own way, and much too
careful of the worldly dignities to which her lot had called her: but
she was a woman who could cause no sorrow to those she loved without
deep sorrow to herself.

CHAPTER XLII

Touching Pitch

In these hot midsummer days, the end of June and the beginning of
July, Mr. Sowerby had but an uneasy time of it. At his sister's
instance, he had hurried up to London, and there had remained for
days in attendance on the lawyers. He had to see new lawyers, Miss
Dunstable's men of business, quiet old cautious gentlemen whose
place of business was in a dark alley behind the Bank, Messrs. Slow
& Bideawhile by name, who had no scruple in detaining him for hours
while they or their clerks talked to him about anything or about
nothing. It was of vital consequence to Mr. Sowerby that this
business of his should be settled without delay, and yet these men,
to whose care this settling was now confided, went on as though law
processes were a sunny bank on which it delighted men to bask easily.
And then, too, he had to go more than once to South Audley Street,
which was a worse infliction; for the men in South Audley Street
were less civil now than had been their wont. It was well understood
there that Mr. Sowerby was no longer a client of the duke's, but
his opponent; no longer his nominee and dependant, but his enemy in
the county. "Chaldicotes," as old Mr. Gumption remarked to young Mr.
Gazebee; "Chaldicotes, Gazebee, is a cooked goose, as far as Sowerby
is concerned. And what difference could it make to him whether the
duke is to own it or Miss Dunstable? For my part I cannot understand
how a gentleman like Sowerby can like to see his property go into the
hands of a gallipot wench whose money still smells of bad drugs. And
nothing can be more ungrateful," he said, "than Sowerby's conduct. He
has held the county for five-and-twenty years without expense; and
now that the time for payment has come, he begrudges the price." He
called it no better than cheating, he did not--he, Mr. Gumption.
According to his ide