ything should be told; but of that which she might probably think
or might possibly do, a fair guess may, I hope, be made from that
which has been already written.

Such was the Staveley family. Those of their guests whom it is
necessary that I should now name, have been already introduced to us.
Miss Furnival was there, as was also her father. He had not intended
to make any prolonged stay at Noningsby,--at least so he had said in
his own drawing-room; but nevertheless he had now been there for a
week, and it seemed probable that he might stay over Christmas-day.
And Felix Graham was there. He had been asked with a special purpose
by his friend Augustus, as we already have heard; in order, namely,
that he might fall in love with Sophia Furnival, and by the aid of
her supposed hatful of money avoid the evils which would otherwise so
probably be the consequence of his highly impracticable turn of mind.
The judge was not averse to Felix Graham; but as he himself was a
man essentially practical in all his views, it often occurred that,
in his mild kindly way, he ridiculed the young barrister. And Sir
Peregrine Orme was there, being absent from home as on a very rare
occasion; and with him of course were Mrs. Orme and his grandson.
Young Perry was making, or was prepared to make, somewhat of a
prolonged stay at Noningsby. He had a horse there with him for the
hunting, which was changed now and again; his groom going backwards
and forwards between that place and The Cleeve. Sir Peregrine,
however, intended to return before Christmas, and Mrs. Orme would go
with him. He had come for four days, which for him had been a long
absence from home, and at the end of the four days he would be gone.

They were all sitting in the dining-room round the luncheon-table
on a hopelessly wet morning, listening to a lecture from the judge
on the abomination of eating meat in the middle of the day, when a
servant came behind young Orme's chair and told him that Mr. Mason
was in the breakfast-parlour and wished to see him.

"Who wishes to see you?" said the baronet in a tone of surprise. He
had caught the name, and thought at the moment that it was the owner
of Groby Park.

"Lucius Mason," said Peregrine, getting up. "I wonder what he can
want me for?"

"Oh, Lucius Mason," said the grandfather. Since the discourse about
agriculture he was not personally much attached even to Lucius; but
for his mother's sake he could be forgiven.

"Pray