It has been said that Mark Robarts was about to pay a visit to Chaldicotes, and it has been hinted that his wife would have been as well pleased had this not been the case.

Such was certainly the fact; for she, dear, prudent, excellent wife as she was, knew that Mr.Sowerby was not the most eligible friend in the world for a young clergyman, and knew, also, that there was but one other house in the whole county the name of which was so distasteful to Lady Lufton.

The reasons for this were, I may say, manifold.

In the first place, Mr.Sowerby was a Whig, and was seated in Parliament mainly by the interest of that great Whig autocrat the Duke of Omnium, whose residence was more dangerous even than that of Mr.
Sowerby, and whom Lady Lufton regarded as an impersonation of Lucifer upon earth.

Mr.Sowerby, too, was unmarried--as indeed, also, was Lord Lufton, much to his mother's grief.