was, upon the whole, averse to matrimony. She had told Miss Macnulty of
her prospects, with some amount of exultation; and the poor dependent,
though she knew that she must be turned out into the street, had
congratulated her patroness. "The vulturess will take you in again, when
she knows you've nowhere else to go to," Lizzie had said, displaying
indeed some accurate discernment of her aunt's character. But after Lady
Fawn's visit she spoke of the marriage in a different tone. "Of course, my
dear, I shall have to look very close after the settlement."

"I suppose the lawyers will do that," said Miss Macnulty.

"Yes; lawyers! That's all very well. I know what lawyers are. I'm not
going to trust any lawyer to give away my property. Of course we shall
live at Portray, because his place is in Ireland, and nothing shall take
me to Ireland. I told him that from the very first. But I don't mean to
give up my own income. I don't suppose he'll venture to suggest such a
thing." And then again she grumbled. "It's all very well being in the
Cabinet----!"

"Is Lord Fawn in the Cabinet?" asked Miss Macnulty, who in such matters
was not altogether ignorant.

"Of course he is," said Lizzie, with an angry gesture. It may seem unjust
to accuse her of being stupidly unacquainted with circumstances, and a
liar at the same time; but she was both. She said that Lord Fawn was in
the Cabinet because she had heard some one speak of him as not being a
Cabinet Minister, and in so speaking appear to slight his political
position. Lizzie did not know how much her companion knew, and Miss
Macnulty did not comprehend the depth of the ignorance of her patroness.
Thus the lies which Lizzie told were amazing to Miss Macnulty. To say that