increases in tremendous ratio, till a man at last is choked in his
struggling, and is drowned beneath the waters. And then he put away
Sowerby's letter carefully, locking it up from his wife's sight. It
was a letter that no parish clergyman should have received. So much
he acknowledged to himself. But nevertheless it was necessary that he
should keep it. And now again for a few hours this affair made him
very miserable.

CHAPTER XIII

Delicate Hints

Lady Lufton had been greatly rejoiced at that good deed which her son
did in giving up his Leicestershire hunting, and coming to reside for
the winter at Framley. It was proper, and becoming, and comfortable
in the extreme. An English nobleman ought to hunt in the county where
he himself owns the fields over which he rides; he ought to receive
the respect and honour due to him from his own tenants; he ought to
sleep under a roof of his own, and he ought also--so Lady Lufton
thought--to fall in love with a young embryo bride of his own
mother's choosing. And then it was so pleasant to have him there in
the house. Lady Lufton was not a woman who allowed her life to be
what people in common parlance call dull. She had too many duties,
and thought too much of them, to allow of her suffering from tedium
and _ennui_. But nevertheless the house was more joyous to her when
he was there. There was a reason for some little gaiety, which
would never have been attracted thither by herself, but which,
nevertheless, she did enjoy when it was brought about by his
presence. She was younger and brighter when he was there, thinking
more of the future and less of the past. She could look at him, and
that alone was happiness to her. And then he was pleasant-mannered
with her; joking with her on her little old-world prejudices in a
tone that was musical to her ear as coming from him; smiling on her,
reminding her of those smiles which she had loved so dearly when as
yet he was all her own, lying there in his little bed beside her
chair. He was kind and gracious to her, behaving like a good son, at
any rate while he was there in her presence. When we add to this, her
fears that he might not be so perfect in his conduct when absent, we
may well imagine that Lady Lufton was pleased to have him there at
Framley Court.

She had hardly said a word to him as to that five thousand pounds.
Many a night, as she lay thinking on her pillow, she said to herself
that no money had ever been bet