she had people there.'

'It can't be helped. She must put it down against Sarah Thompson.
She ought not to expect to win always.'

'I should not have minded it, if she had lost, as you call it,
about Sarah Thompson. That was a case in which you ought to have
had your own way.'

'And this other is a case, in which I shall have it. It's a pity
that there should be such a difference; isn't it?'

Then his wife perceived that, vexed as she was, it would be better
that she should say nothing further; and before she went to bed,
she wrote the note to Lady Lufton, as her husband recommended.



CHAPTER II

THE FRAMLEY SET, AND THE CHALDICOTES SET

It will be necessary that I should say a word or two of some of the
people named in the few preceding pages, and also of the localities
in which they lived. Of Lady Lufton herself enough, perhaps, has
been written to introduce her to my readers. The Framley property
belonged to her son; but as Lufton Park--an ancient ramshackle
place in another county--had heretofore been the family residence
of the Lufton family, Framley Court had been apportioned to her for
her residence for life. Lord Lufton himself was still unmarried;