and beyond that she had not seen him at all. One day, however—or rather, one evening, for it was already dusk—he overtook her and Mrs. Robarts on the road walking towards the vicarage. He had his gun on his shoulder, three pointers were at his heels, and a gamekeeper followed a little in the rear.
"How are you, Mrs. Robarts?" he said, almost before he had overtaken them. "I have been chasing you along the road for the last half mile. I never knew ladies walk so fast."
"We should be frozen if we were to dawdle about as you gentlemen do," and then she stopped and shook hands with him. She forgot at the moment that Lucy and he had not met, and therefore she did not introduce them.
"Won't you make me known to your sister-in-law?" said he, taking off his hat, and bowing to Lucy. "I have never yet had the pleasure of meeting her, though we have been neighbours for a month and more."
Fanny made her excuses and introduced them, and then they went on till they came to Framley Gate, Lord Lufton talking to them both, and Fanny answering for the two, and there they stopped for a moment.
"I am surprised to see you alone," Mrs. Robarts had just said; "I thought that Captain Culpepper was with you."
"The captain has left me for this one day. If you'll whisper I'll tell you where he has gone. I dare not speak it out loud, even to the woods."
"To what terrible place can he have taken himself? I'll have no whisperings about such horrors."
"He has gone to—to—but you'll promise not to tell my mother?"
"Not tell your mother! Well now you have excited my curiosity! where can he be?"
"Do you promise, then?"
"Oh, yes! I will promise, because I'm sure Lady Lufton won't ask me as to Captain Culpepper's whereabouts. We won't tell; will we, Lucy?"
"He has gone to Gatherum Castle for a day's pheasant-shooting. Now, mind you must not betray us. Her ladyship supposes that he is shut up in his room with a toothache. We did not dare to mention the name to her."
And then it appeared that Mrs. Robarts had some engagement which made it necessary that she should go up and see Lady Lufton, whereas Lucy was intending to walk on to the parsonage alone.
"And I have promised to go to your husband," said Lord Lufton; "or rather to your husband's dog, Ponto. And I will do two other good things, I will carry a brace of pheasants with me, and protect Miss Robarts from the evil spirits of the Framley roads." And so Mrs. Robarts turned in at the gate, and Lucy and his lordship walked off together.
Lord Lufton, though he had never before spoken to Miss Robarts, had
