s. She's
false, dishonest, heartless, cruel, irreligious, ungrateful, mean,
ignorant, greedy, and vile!"

"Good gracious, Lady Linlithgow!"

"She's all that, and a great deal worse. But she is handsome. I don't
know that I ever saw a prettier woman. I generally go out in a cab
at three o'clock, but I sha'n't want you to go with me. I don't know
what you can do. Macnulty used to walk round Grosvenor Square and
think that people mistook her for a lady of quality. You mustn't go
and walk round Grosvenor Square by yourself, you know. Not that I
care."

"I'm not a bit afraid of anybody," said Lucy.

"Now you know all about it. There isn't anything for you to do. There
are Miss Edgeworth's novels down-stairs, and 'Pride and Prejudice' in
my bed-room. I don't subscribe to Mudie's, because when I asked for
'Adam Bede,' they always sent me the 'Bandit Chief.' Perhaps you can
borrow books from your friends at Richmond. I daresay Mrs. Greystock
has told you that I'm very cross."

"I haven't seen Mrs. Greystock for ever so long."

"Then Lady Fawn has told you,--or somebody. When the wind is east,
or north-east, or even north, I am cross, for I have the lumbago.
It's all very well talking about being good-humoured. You can't be
good-humoured with the lumbago. And I have the gout sometimes in my
knee. I'm cross enough then, and so you'd be. And, among 'em all, I
don't get much above half what I ought to have out of my jointure.
That makes me very cross. My teeth are bad, and I like to have the
meat tender. But it's always tough, and that makes me cross. And when
people go against the grain with me, as Lizzie Eustace always did,
then I'm very cross."

"I hope you won't be very bad with me," said Lucy.

"I don't bite, if you mean that," said her ladyship.

"I'd sooner be bitten than barked at,--sometimes," said Lucy.

"Humph!" said the old woman, and then she went back to her accounts.

Lucy had a few books of her own, and she determined to ask Frank to
send her some. Books are cheap things, and she would not mind asking
him for magazines, and numbers, and perhaps for the loan of a few
volumes. In the meantime she did read Tupper's poem, and "Pride and
Prejudice," and one of Miss Edgeworth's novels,--probably for the
third time. During the first week in Bruton Street she would have
been comfortable enough, only that she had not received a line from
Frank. That Frank was not specially good at writing letters she had
alrea