was almost impossible that a man should be
loved and suspected at the same time. She could not have loved the
man, or at any rate confessed her love, without thinking well of
him; and she could not think good and evil at the same time. She had
longed for some word from him since she last saw him; and now she had
got a word. She had known that he was close to his fair cousin,--the
cousin whom she despised, and whom, with womanly instinct, she had
almost regarded as a rival. But to her the man had spoken out; and
though he was far away from her, living close to the fair cousin, she
would not allow a thought of trouble on that score to annoy her. He
was her own, and let Lizzie Eustace do her worst, he would remain her
own. But she had longed to be told that he was thinking of her, and
at last the letter had come. She answered it that same night with the
sweetest, prettiest little letter, very short, full of love and full
of confidence. Lady Fawn, she said, was the dearest of women;--but
what was Lady Fawn to her, or all the Fawns, compared with her lover?
If he could come to Richmond without disturbance to himself, let
him come; but if he felt that, in the present unhappy condition of
affairs between him and Lord Fawn, it was better that he should stay
away, she had not a word to say in the way of urging him. To see him
would be a great delight. But had she not the greater delight of
knowing that he loved her? That was quite enough to make her happy.
Then there was a little prayer that God might bless him, and an
assurance that she was in all things his own, own Lucy. When she was
writing her letter she was in all respects a happy girl.

But on the very next day there came a cloud upon her happiness,--not
in the least, however, affecting her full confidence in her lover. It
was a Saturday, and Lord Fawn came down to Richmond. Lord Fawn had
seen Mr. Greystock in London on that day, and the interview had been
by no means pleasant to him. The Under-Secretary of State for India
was as dark as a November day when he reached his mother's house, and
there fell upon every one the unintermittent cold drizzling shower of
his displeasure from the moment in which he entered the house. There
was never much reticence among the ladies at Richmond in Lucy's
presence, and since the completion of Lizzie's unfortunate visit to
Fawn Court, they had not hesitated to express open opinions adverse
to the prospects of the proposed bride. Lucy he