n parlance, she had twice applied to
Lord Fawn. And yet, as she was well aware, Lord Fawn had told no lie.
He had himself believed every word that he had spoken against Frank
Greystock. That he had been guilty of unmanly cruelty in so speaking
of her lover in her presence, Lucy still thought, but she should not
therefore have accused him of falsehood. "It was untrue all the
same," she said to herself, as she stood still on the gravel walk,
watching the rapid disappearance of Lord Fawn, and endeavouring to
think what she had better now do with herself. Of course Lord Fawn,
like a great child, would at once go and tell his mother what that
wicked governess had said to him.

In the hall she met her friend Lydia. "Oh, Lucy, what is the matter
with Frederic?" she asked.

"Lord Fawn is very angry indeed."

"With you?"

"Yes;--with me. He is so angry that I am sure he would not sit down
to breakfast with me. So I won't come down. Will you tell your mamma?
If she likes to send to me, of course I'll go to her at once."

"What have you done, Lucy?"

"I've told him again that what he said wasn't true."

"But why?"

"Because--Oh, how can I say why? Why does any person do everything
that she ought not to do? It's the fall of Adam, I suppose."

"You shouldn't make a joke of it, Lucy."

"You can have no conception how unhappy I am about it. Of course Lady
Fawn will tell me to go away. I went out on purpose to beg his pardon
for what I said last night, and I just said the very same thing
again."

"But why did you say it?"

"And I should say it again and again and again, if he were to go on
telling me that Mr. Greystock isn't a gentleman. I don't think he
ought to have done it. Of course, I have been very wrong; I know
that. But I think he has been wrong too. But I must own it, and he
needn't. I'll go up now and stay in my own room till your mamma sends
for me."

"And I'll get Jane to bring you some breakfast."

"I don't care a bit about breakfast," said Lucy.

Lord Fawn did tell his mother, and Lady Fawn was perplexed in the
extreme. She was divided in her judgment and feelings between the
privilege due to Lucy as a girl possessed of an authorised lover,--a
privilege which no doubt existed, but which was not extensive,--and
the very much greater privilege which attached to Lord Fawn as a man,
as a peer, as an Under-Secretary of State,--but which attached to
him especially as the head and only man belonging to the F