of mind at present,
and it can hardly be said that she understood it herself. She felt
that she had received a severe blow in having been thus made the
subject of remark with reference to Lord Lufton. She knew that her
pleasant evenings at Framley Court were now over, and that she
could not again talk to him in an unrestrained tone and without
embarrassment. She had felt the air of the whole place to be very
cold before her intimacy with him, and now it must be cold again.
Two homes had been open to her; Framley Court and the parsonage;
and now, as far as comfort was concerned, she must confine herself
to the latter. She could not again be comfortable in Lady Lufton's
drawing-room. But then she could not help asking herself whether Lady
Lufton was not right. She had had courage enough, and presence of
mind, to joke about the matter when her sister-in-law spoke to her,
and yet she was quite aware that it was no joking matter. Lord Lufton
had not absolutely made love to her, but he had latterly spoken to
her in a manner which she knew was not compatible with that ordinary
comfortable masculine friendship with the idea of which she had once
satisfied herself. Was not Fanny right when she said that intimate
friendships of that nature were dangerous things?

Yes, Lucy, very dangerous. Lucy, before she went to bed that night,
had owned to herself that they were so; and lying there with
sleepless eyes and a moist pillow, she was driven to confess that the
label would in truth be now too late, that the caution had come to
her after the poison had been swallowed. Was there any antidote? That
was all that was left for her to consider. But, nevertheless, on the
following morning she could appear quite at her ease. And when Mark
had left the house after breakfast, she could still joke with Fanny
as to Lady Lufton's poisoned cupboard.

CHAPTER XIV

Mr. Crawley of Hogglestock

And then there was that other trouble in Lady Lufton's mind, the
sins, namely, of her selected parson. She had selected him, and she
was by no means inclined to give him up, even though his sins against
parsondom were grievous. Indeed she was a woman not prone to give up
anything, and of all things not prone to give up a protege. The very
fact that she herself had selected him was the strongest argument
in his favour. But his sins against parsondom were becoming very
grievous in her eyes, and she was at a loss to know what steps to
take. She hard