"Dear Lady Fawn," she said, "my cousin
Frank came to see me while you were out."
"So I hear," said Lady Fawn.
"Frank and I are more like brother and sister than anything else. I had so
much to say to him; so much to ask him to do! I have no one else, you
know, and I had especially told him to come here."
"Of course he was welcome to come."
"Only I was afraid you might think that there was some little lover's
trick--on dear Lucy's part, you know."
"I never suspect anything of that kind," said Lady Fawn, bridling up.
"Lucy Morris is above any sort of trick. We don't have any tricks here,
Lady Eustace." Lady Fawn herself might say that Lucy was "wrong," but no
one else in that house should even suggest evil of Lucy. Lizzie retreated
smiling. To have "put Lady Fawn's back up," as she called it, was to her
an achievement and a pleasure.
But the great excitement of the evening consisted in the expected coming
of Lord Fawn. Of what nature would be the meeting between Lord Fawn and
his promised bride? Was there anything of truth in the opinion expressed
by Mrs. Hittaway that her brother was beginning to become tired of his
bargain? That Lady Fawn was tired of it herself--that she disliked Lizzie
and was afraid of her, and averse to the idea of regarding her as a
daughter-in-law-she did not now attempt to hide from herself.
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