Framley Parsonage | Page 8

day or two.'
'That is much more likely, Mark. If the pleasure of meeting Mrs
Proudie is taking you to Chaldicotes, I have not a word more to say.'
'I am not a bit more fond of Mrs Proudie than you are, Fanny,' said the
vicar, with something like vexation in the tone of his voice, for he
thought that his wife was hard upon him. 'But it is generally thought
that a parish clergyman does well to meet his bishop now and then.
And as I was invited there, especially to preach while all these people
are staying at the place, I could not well refuse.' And then he got up,
and taking his candlestick, escaped to his dressing-room.
'But what am I to say to Lady Lufton?' his wife said to him in the
course of the evening.
'Just write her a note, and tell her that you find I had promised to preach
at Chaldicotes next Sunday. You'll go of course?'
'Yes; but I know she'll be annoyed. You were away the last time 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; and as he had no
establishment at Lufton Park--which indeed had not been inhabited
since his grandfather died--he lived with his mother when it suited him
to live anywhere in that neighbourhood. The widow would fain have
seen more of him than he allowed her to do. He had a shooting lodge in
Scotland, and apartments in London, and a string of horses in
Leicestershire--much to the disgust of the country gentry around him,
who held that their own hunting was as good as any that England could
afford. His lordship, however, paid his subscription to the East
Barsetshire park, and then thought himself at liberty to follow his own
pleasure as to his own amusement.
Framley itself was a pleasant country place, having about it nothing of
seigneurial dignity or grandeur, but possessing everything necessary for
the comfort of country life. The house was a low building of two stories,
built at different periods, and devoid of all pretensions to any style of
architecture; but the rooms, though not lofty, were warm and
comfortable, and the gardens were trim and neat beyond all others in
the county. Indeed, it was for its gardens only that Framley Court was
celebrated. Village there was none, properly speaking. The high road
went winding about through the Framley paddocks, shrubberies, and
wood-skirted home fields, for a mile and a half, not two hundred yards
of which ran in a straight line; and there was a cross-road which passed
down through the domain, whereby there came to be a locality called
Framley Cross. Here stood the 'Lufton Arms', and here at Framley
Cross, the hounds occasionally would meet; for the Framley woods

were drawn in spite of the young lord's truant disposition; and then, at
the Cross also, lived the shoemaker, who kept the post-office.
Framley church was distant from this just a quarter of a mile, and stood
immediately opposite to the chief entrance to Framley Court. It was but
a mean, ugly building, having been erected about a hundred years since,
when all churches then built were made to be mean and ugly; nor was it
large enough for the congregation, some of whom were thus driven to
the dissenting chapels, the Sions and Ebenezers, which had got
themselves established on each side of the parish, in putting down
which Lady Lufton thought that her parson was hardly as energetic as
he might be. It was, therefore, a matter near to Lady