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This arrangement was not at all points agreeable to Lady Lufton, for she knew that Mrs. Grantly did not turn her back on the Hartletop people quite as cordially as she should do, considering the terms of the Lufton-Grantly family treaty. But then Mrs.
Olivia Proudie had just accepted a widowed preacher at a district church in Bethnal Green a man with three children, who was dependent on pew-rents; and Griselda Grantly was engaged to the eldest son of the Marquess of Hartletop! When women are enjoined to forgive their enemies it cannot be intended that such wrongs as these should be included. But Mrs. Proudie's courage was nothing daunted.
"There's a great crowd," said Lady Hartletop. "I didn't think London was so full." "Very great." said Lady Glencora, and then they had said to each other all that society required.
Now it happened that when this second and more aggravated blast of the evil wind reached the rectory, the renewed waft of the tidings as to Major Grantly's infatuation regarding Miss Grace Crawley, which, on its renewal, seemed to bring with it something of confirmation, it chanced, I say, that at that moment Griselda, Marchioness of Hartletop, was gracing the paternal mansion.
During this conversation Lady Hartletop sat as though no word of it reached her ears. She did not understand Madame Max Goesler, and by no means loved her. Mr. Palliser, when he had made his little speech, turned to the Duke's daughter and asked some question about the conservatories at Longroyston. "I have called forth a word of wisdom," said Madame Max Goesler, almost in a whisper.
"What part did you play?" he asked innocently. "Part? Why, the part, of course!" she retorted. "Goodness! Why, I created it! And played it to crowded houses for nearly two hundred nights, too!" "Ah!" said Copplestone. "But I'll make a confession to you. I rarely visit the theatre. I never saw Lady Hartletop. I haven't been in a theatre of any sort for two years. So you must forgive me.
"A place I was at last summer, in Shropshire." "Then they don't play the game, Mr Crosbie, at the place you were at last summer, in Shropshire," said Lily. "You mean Lady Hartletop's," said Bernard. Now, the Marchioness of Hartletop was a very great person indeed, and a leader in the fashionable world. "Oh! Lady Hartletop's!" said Lily.
She knew well that now was her time for a triumph, now in this very first season of her acknowledged beauty; and she knew also that young, good-looking bachelor lords do not grow on hedges like blackberries. Had Lord Lufton offered to her, she would have accepted him at once without any remorse as to the greater glories which might appertain to a future Marchioness of Hartletop.
And indeed this handing round has become a vulgar and an intolerable nuisance among us second-class gentry with our eight hundred a year there or thereabouts; doubly intolerable as being destructive of our natural comforts, and a wretchedly vulgar aping of men with large incomes. The Duke of Omnium and Lady Hartletop are undoubtedly wise to have everything handed round.
Green Walker was a nephew of the Marchioness of Hartletop, and the Marchioness of Hartletop was a friend of the Duke of Omnium's. Mr. Mark Robarts was certainly elated when he ascertained who composed the company of which he had been so earnestly pressed to make a portion. Would it have been wise in him to forgo this on account of the prejudices of Lady Lufton?
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