He took his degree--not with any brilliancy, but quite in the
manner that his father desired; he then travelled for eight or ten
months with Lord Lufton and a college don, and almost immediately
after his return home was ordained.

The living of Framley is in the diocese of Barchester; and, seeing
what were Mark's hopes with reference to that diocese, it was by no
means difficult to get him a curacy within it. But this curacy he
was not allowed long to fill. He had not been in it above a
twelvemonth, when poor old Dr Stopford, the then vicar of Framley,
was gathered to his fathers, and the full fruition of his rich
hopes fell upon his shoulders.

But even yet more must be told of his good fortune before we can
come to the actual incidents of our story. Lady Lufton, who, as I
have said, thought much of clerical matters, did not carry her High
Church principles so far as to advocate celibacy for the clergy. On
the contrary, she had an idea that a man could not be a good parish
parson without a wife. So, having given to her favourite a
position in the world, and an income sufficient for a gentleman's
wants, she set herself to work to find him a partner in those
blessings. And here also, as in other matters, he fell in with the
views of his patroness--not, however, that they were declared to
him in that marked manner in which the affair of the living had
been broached. Lady Lufton was much too highly gifted with woman's
craft for that. She never told the young vicar that Miss Monsell
accompanied her ladyship's married daughter to Framley Court
expressly that he, Mark, might fall in love with her; but such was
in truth the case.