"Intentions?" repeated Mrs. Egerton.
"Yes," with deep significance,—"so to speak. With regard to Lucia."
Mrs. Egerton looked utterly helpless.
"Dear me!" she ejaculated plaintively. "I have never had time to think of it. Dear me! With regard to Lucia!"
Mrs. Burnham became more significant still.
"And" she added, "Mr. Francis Barold."
Mrs. Egerton turned to Miss Pilcher, and saw confirmation of the fact in her countenance.
"Dear, dear!" she said. "That makes it worse than ever."
"It is certain," put in Miss Pilcher, "that the union would be a desirable one; and we have reason to remark that a deep interest in Mr. Francis Barold has been shown by Lady Theobald. He has been invited to make her house his home during his stay in Slowbridge; and, though he has not done so, the fact that he has not is due only to some inexplicable reluctance upon his own part. And we all remember that Lady Theobald once plainly intimated that she anticipated Lucia forming, in the future, a matrimonial alliance."
"Oh!" commented Mrs. Egerton, with some slight impatience, "it is all very well for Lady Theobald to have intentions for Lucia; but, if the young man has none, I really don't see that her intentions will be likely to result in any thing particular. And I am sure Mr. Francis Barold is not in the mood to be influenced in that way now. He is more likely to entertain himself with Miss Octavia Bassett, who will take him out in the moonlight, and make herself agreeable to him in her American style."