shop will be there, and indeed
nearly the whole set who are here now. The duke would have written
when he heard that you were to be at Chaldicotes; but things were
hardly quite arranged then, so his grace has left it for me to tell
you how happy he will be to make your acquaintance in his own house.
I have spoken to Sowerby," continued Mr. Fothergill, "and he very
much hopes that you will be able to join us."

Mark felt that his face became red when this proposition was made
to him. The party in the county to which he properly belonged--he
and his wife, and all that made him happy and respectable--looked
upon the Duke of Omnium with horror and amazement; and now he had
absolutely received an invitation to the duke's house! A proposition
was made to him that he should be numbered among the duke's friends!

And though in one sense he was sorry that the proposition was made to
him, yet in another he was proud of it. It is not every young man,
let his profession be what it may, who can receive overtures of
friendship from dukes without some elation. Mark, too, had risen in
the world, as far as he had yet risen, by knowing great people; and
he certainly had an ambition to rise higher. I will not degrade him
by calling him a tuft-hunter; but he undoubtedly had a feeling that
the paths most pleasant for a clergyman's feet were those which were
trodden by the great ones of the earth. Nevertheless, at the moment
he declined the duke's invitation. He was very much flattered, he
said, but the duties of his parish would require him to return direct
from Chaldicotes to Framley.

"You need not give me an answer to-night, you know," said Mr.
Fothergill. "Before the week is past, we will talk it over with
Sowerby and the bishop. It will be a thousand pities, Mr. Robarts,
if you will allow me to say so, that you should neglect such an
opportunity of knowing his grace."

When Mark went to bed, his mind was still set against going to the
duke's; but, nevertheless, he did feel that it was a pity that he
should not do so. After all, was it necessary that he should obey
Lady Lufton in all things?

CHAPTER IV

A Matter of Conscience

It is no doubt very wrong to long after a naughty thing. But
nevertheless we all do so. One may say that hankering after naughty
things is the very essence of the evil into which we have been
precipitated by Adam's fall. When we confess that we are all sinners,
we confess that we all long after