ful!
Oh, no, she was not fanciful about him--she was not even silly, Lucy
thought. She was capable of allowing that other babies might be lovely,
though why the feet of Katie's children should be of so much importance
she allowed to herself she could not see. She was roused from these
tranquil thoughts by a little commotion on the other side of the table,
where Sir Tom had just thrown down his letter. He was laughing and
talking to himself. "Why shouldn't she come if she likes it?" he was
saying. "Lucy, look here, since you have set up a confidant, I shall
have one too," and with that Sir Tom went off into an immoderate fit of
laughing. The letter scattered upon the table all opened out, two large
foreign sheets, looked endless. Nobody had ever written so much to Lucy
in all her life. She could see it was largely underlined and full of
notes of admiration and interrogation, altogether an out-of-the-way
epistle. Was it possible that Sir Tom was a little excited as well as
amused? He put his roll upon a hot plate, and began to cut it with his
knife and fork in an absence of mind, which was not usual with him, and
at intervals of a minute or two would burst out with his long "Ha, ha,"
again. "That will serve you out, Lucy," he said, with a shout, "if I set
up a confidant too."

CHAPTER VII.

A WARNING.

"I wonder if I shall like her," Lucy said to herself.

She had been hearing from her husband about the Contessa di
Forno-Populo, who had promised to pay them a visit at Christmas. He had
laughed a great deal while he described this lady. "What she will do
here in a country-house in the depth of winter, I cannot tell," he said,
"but if she wants to come why shouldn't she? She and I are old friends.
One time and another we have seen a great deal of each other. She will
not understand me in the character of a Benedick, but that will be all
the greater fun," he said with a laugh. Lucy looked at him with a little
surprise. She could not quite make him out.

"If she is a friend she will not mind the country and the winter," said
Lucy; "it will be you she will want to see----"

"That is all very well, my dear," said Sir Tom, "but she wants something
more than me. She wants a little amusement. We must have a party to meet
her, Lucy. We have never yet had the house full for Christmas. Don't you
think it will be better to furnish the Contessa with other objects
instead of letting her loose upon your husband. You don't