e lights in many
of the windows, and a noise of voices came from the stables, and
servants were moving about, and dogs barked, and the dark gravel
before the front steps was cut up with many a coach-wheel.

"Oh, be that you, sir, Mr. Robarts?" said a groom, taking the
parson's horse by the head, and touching his own hat. "I hope I see
your reverence well?"

"Quite well, Bob, thank you. All well at Chaldicotes?"

"Pretty bobbish, Mr. Robarts. Deal of life going on here now, sir.
The bishop and his lady came this morning."

"Oh--ah--yes! I understood they were to be here. Any of the young
ladies?"

"One young lady. Miss Olivia, I think they call her, your reverence."

"And how's Mr. Sowerby?"

"Very well, your reverence. He, and Mr. Harold Smith, and Mr.
Fothergill--that's the duke's man of business, you know--is getting
off their horses now in the stable-yard there."

"Home from hunting--eh, Bob?"

"Yes, sir, just home, this minute." And then Mr. Robarts walked into
the house, his portmanteau following on a foot-boy's shoulder.

It will be seen that our young vicar was very intimate at
Chaldicotes; so much so that the groom knew him, and talked to him
about the people in the house. Yes; he was intimate there: much more
than he had given the Framley people to understand. Not that he had
wilfully and overtly deceived any one; not that he had ever spoken a
false word about Chaldicotes. But he had never boasted at home that
he and Sowerby were near allies. Neither had he told them there
how often Mr. Sowerby and Lord Lufton were together in London. Why
trouble women with such matters? Why annoy so excellent a woman as
Lady Lufton? And then Mr. Sowerby was one whose intimacy few young
men would wish to reject. He was fifty, and had lived, perhaps, not
the most salutary life; but he dressed young, and usually looked
well. He was bald, with a good forehead, and sparkling moist eyes. He
was a clever man, and a pleasant companion, and always good-humoured
when it so suited him. He was a gentleman, too, of high breeding and
good birth, whose ancestors had been known in that county--longer,
the farmers around would boast, than those of any other land-owner in
it, unless it be the Thornes of Ullathorne, or perhaps the Greshams
of Greshamsbury--much longer than the de Courcys at Courcy Castle.
As for the Duke of Omnium, he, comparatively speaking, was a new
man. And then he was a member of Parliament, a friend of some me