taway had described it, very distasteful.

And this trouble hit Lucy Morris as hard as it did Lord Fawn. If
Lizzie Eustace was unfit to marry Lord Fawn because of these things,
then was Frank Greystock not only unfit to marry Lucy, but most
unlikely to do so, whether fit or unfit. For a week or two Lady Fawn
had allowed herself to share Lucy's joy, and to believe that Mr.
Greystock would prove himself true to the girl whose heart he had
made all his own;--but she had soon learned to distrust the young
member of Parliament who was always behaving insolently to her son,
who spent his holidays down with Lizzie Eustace, who never visited
and rarely wrote to the girl he had promised to marry, and as to whom
all the world agreed in saying that he was far too much in debt to
marry any woman who had not means to help him. It was all sorrow and
vexation together; and yet when her married daughter would press the
subject upon her, and demand her co-operation, she had no power of
escaping. "Mamma," Mrs. Hittaway had said, "Lady Glencora Palliser
has been with her, and everybody is taking her up, and if her conduct
down in Scotland isn't proved, Frederic will be made to marry her."
"But what can I do, my dear?" Lady Fawn had asked, almost in tears.
"Insist that Frederic shall know the whole truth," replied Mrs.
Hittaway with energy. "Of course, it is very disagreeable. Nobody
can feel it more than I do. It is horrible to have to talk about
such things,--and to think of them." "Indeed it is, Clara,--very
horrible." "But anything, mamma, is better than that Frederic should
be allowed to marry such a woman as that. It must be proved to
him--how unfit she is to be his wife." With the view of carrying out
this intention, Mrs. Hittaway had, as we have seen, received Andy
Gowran at her own house; and with the same view she took Andy Gowran
the following morning down to Richmond.

Mrs. Hittaway, and her mother, and Andy were closeted together for
half an hour, and Lady Fawn suffered grievously. Lord Fawn had found
that he couldn't hear the story, and he had not heard it. He had been
strong enough to escape, and had, upon the whole, got the best of
it in the slight skirmish which had taken place between him and the
Scotchman; but poor old Lady Fawn could not escape. Andy was allowed
to be eloquent, and the whole story was told to her, though she would
almost sooner have been flogged at a cart's tail than have heard it.
Then "rafrashments"