" And
then Lady Lufton went.

Mrs. Robarts instantly rushed to her desk and tore open her letter.
She looked at her watch and it was past four. She had hardly begun
another when the postman came. "Oh, Mary," she said, "do make him
wait. If he'll wait a quarter of an hour I'll give him a shilling."

"There's no need of that, ma'am. Let him have a glass of beer."

"Very well, Mary; but don't give him too much, for fear he should
drop the letters about. I'll be ready in ten minutes." And in five
minutes she had scrawled a very different sort of letter. But he
might want the money immediately, so she would not delay it for a
day.

CHAPTER VI

Mr. Harold Smith's Lecture

On the whole the party at Chaldicotes was very pleasant, and the
time passed away quickly enough. Mr. Robarts's chief friend there,
independently of Mr. Sowerby, was Miss Dunstable, who seemed to
take a great fancy to him, whereas she was not very accessible to
the blandishments of Mr. Supplehouse, nor more specially courteous
even to her host than good manners required of her. But then Mr.
Supplehouse and Mr. Sowerby were both bachelors, while Mark Robarts
was a married man. With Mr. Sowerby Robarts had more than one
communication respecting Lord Lufton and his affairs, which he would
willingly have avoided had it been possible. Sowerby was one of those
men who are always mixing up business with pleasure, and who have
usually some scheme in their mind which requires forwarding. Men of
this class have, as a rule, no daily work, no regular routine of
labour; but it may be doubted whether they do not toil much more
incessantly than those who have.

"Lufton is so dilatory," Mr. Sowerby said. "Why did he not arrange
this at once, when he promised it? And then he is so afraid of that
old woman at Framley Court. Well, my dear fellow, say what you will;
she is an old woman, and she'll never be younger. But do write to
Lufton, and tell him that this delay is inconvenient to me; he'll
do anything for you, I know." Mark said that he would write, and,
indeed, did do so; but he did not at first like the tone of the
conversation into which he was dragged. It was very painful to him to
hear Lady Lufton called an old woman, and hardly less so to discuss
the propriety of Lord Lufton's parting with his property. This was
irksome to him, till habit made it easy. But by degrees his feelings
became less acute, and he accustomed himself to his friend Sowerby's