done nothing.

CHAPTER XXXIII

"It Won't Be True"

Mrs. Greystock, in making her proposition respecting Lady Linlithgow,
wrote to Lady Fawn, and by the same post Frank wrote to Lucy. But
before those letters reached Fawn Court there had come that other
dreadful letter from Mrs. Hittaway. The consternation caused at Fawn
Court in respect to Mr. Greystock's treachery almost robbed of its
importance the suggestion made as to Lord Fawn. Could it be possible
that this man, who had so openly and in so manly a manner engaged
himself to Lucy Morris, should now be proposing to himself a marriage
with his rich cousin? Lady Fawn did not believe that it was possible.
Clara had not seen those horrid things with her own eyes, and other
people might be liars. But Amelia shook her head. Amelia evidently
believed that all manner of iniquities were possible to man. "You
see, mamma, the sacrifice he was making was so very great!" "But he
made it!" pleaded Lady Fawn. "No, mamma, he said he would make it.
Men do these things. It is very horrid, but I think they do them more
now than they used to. It seems to me that nobody cares now what he
does, if he's not to be put into prison." It was resolved between
these two wise ones that nothing at the present should be said to
Lucy or to any one of the family. They would wait awhile, and in
the meantime they attempted,--as far as it was possible to make the
attempt without express words,--to let Lucy understand that she might
remain at Fawn Court if she pleased. While this was going on, Lord
Fawn did come down once again, and on that occasion Lucy simply
absented herself from the dinner-table and from the family circle for
that evening. "He's coming in, and you've got to go to prison again,"
Nina said to her, with a kiss.

The matter to which Mrs. Hittaway's letter more specially alluded
was debated between the mother and daughter at great length. They,
indeed, were less brave and less energetic than was the married
daughter of the family; but as they saw Lord Fawn more frequently,
they knew better than Mrs. Hittaway the real state of the case. They
felt sure that he was already sufficiently embittered against Lady
Eustace, and thought that therefore the peculiarly unpleasant task
assigned to Lady Fawn need not be performed. Lady Fawn had not the
advantage of living so much in the world as her daughter, and was
oppressed by, perhaps, a squeamish delicacy. "I really could not tell
him