with Lady Randolph,
who now and then insisted on opening it up. When the end of her visit
arrived she sent for Lucy into her own room, to speak to her seriously.
She said--

"My dear, I am due to-morrow at the Maltravers', as you know. It is a
visit I like to pay, they are always so nice; but I cannot bear the
thought of going off, Lucy, to enjoy myself and leaving you alone."

"Alone, Aunt Randolph!" cried Lucy, "when Tom is at home!"

"Oh, Tom! I have no patience with Tom," cried the Dowager. "I think he
must be mad to let that woman come upon you so. Of course you know very
well, my dear, it is of her that I want to speak. In the country it does
not so much matter; but you must not let her identify herself with you,
Lucy, in town."

"In town!" Lucy said with a little dismay; "but, dear Aunt Randolph, it
will be six weeks before we go to town; and, surely, long before
that----" She paused, and blushed with a sense of the inhospitality
involved in her words, which made Lucy ashamed of herself.

"You think so?" said Lady Randolph, smiling somewhat grimly. "Well, we
shall see. For my part, I think she will find Park Lane a very desirable
situation, and if you do not take the greatest care---- But why should I
speak to you of taking care? Of course, if Tom wished it, you would take
in all Bohemia, and never say a word----"

"Surely," said Lucy, looking with serene eyes in the elder lady's face,
"I do not know what you mean by Bohemia, Aunt Randolph; but if you think
it possible that I should object when Tom asks his friends----"

"Oh--his friends! I have no patience with you, either the one or the
other," said the old lady. "When Sir Robert was living, do you think it
was he who invited _my_ guests? I should think not indeed! especially
the women. If that was to be the case, marriage would soon become an
impossibility. And is it possible, Lucy, is it possible that you, with
your good sense, can like all that petting and coaxing, and the way she
talks to you as if you were a child?"

As a matter of fact Lucy had not been able to school herself into liking
it; but when the objection was stated so plainly, she coloured high with
a vexation and annoyance which were very grievous and hard to bear. It
seemed to her that it would be disloyal both to her husband and her
guest if she complained, and at the same time Lady Randolph's shot went
straight to the mark. She did her best to smile, but it was not a very
easy task