my lady. There are
two ladies besides the man and the maid. We thought it would be the
warmest for them, as they came from the South."

"It may be the warmest, but it is not the prettiest," said Lucy. "The
lady is a great friend of Sir Thomas', Williams."

The man gave her a curious look.

"Yes, my lady, I was aware of that," he said.

This surprised Lucy a little, but for the moment she took no notice of
it. "And therefore," she went on, "the best rooms should have been got
ready. Mrs. Freshwater ought to have known that. However, perhaps she
will change afterwards. Jock, I will just run upstairs and see that
everything is right."

As she turned towards the great staircase, so saying, she ran almost
into her husband's arms. Sir Tom had appeared from a side door, where he
had been on the watch, and it was certain that his face bore some traces
of the new event that had happened. He was not at his ease as usual. He
laughed a little uncomfortable laugh, and put his hand on Lucy's
shoulder as she brushed against him. "There," he said, "that will do;
don't be in such a hurry," arresting her in full career.

"Oh, Tom!" Lucy for her part looked at her husband with the greatest
relief and happiness. There had been a cloud between them which had been
more grievous to her than anything else in the world. She had felt
hourly compelled to stand up before him and tell him that she must do
what he desired her not to do. The consternation and pain and wrath that
had risen over his face after that painful interview had not passed away
through all the intervening time. There had been a sort of desperation
in her mind when she went to Mr. Rushton, a feeling that she so hated
the duty which had risen like a ghost between her husband and herself,
that she must do it at all hazards and without delay. But this cloud had
now departed from Sir Tom's countenance. There was a little suffusion of
colour upon it which was unusual to him. Had it been anybody but Sir
Tom, it would have looked like embarrassment, shyness mingled with a
certain self-ridicule and sense of the ludicrous in the position
altogether. He caught his wife in his arms and met her eyes with a
certain laughing shamefacedness, "Don't," he said, "be in such a hurry,
Lucy. _Ces dames_ have gone to their rooms; they have been travelling
all night, and they are not fit to be seen. It is only silly little
English girls like you that can bear to be looked at at all times and
s