Chapter 22 - Page 2

"Do you mind my telling you that you have put on an enchanted garment?"
said Mr. Burmistone, the first time they met when she wore one of the
old-new gowns. "I thought I knew before how"--

"I don't mind it at all," said Lucia, blushing brilliantly. "I rather
like it. It rewards me for my industry. My hair is dressed in a new way.
I hope you like that too. Grandmamma does not."

It had been Lady Theobald's habit to treat Lucia severely from a sense of
duty. Her manner toward her had always rather the tone of implying that
she was naturally at fault, and yet her ladyship could not have told
wherein she wished the girl changed. In the good old school in which my
lady had been trained, it was customary to regard young people as weak,
foolish, and, if left to their own desires, frequently sinful. Lucia had
not been left to her own desires. She had been taught to view herself as
rather a bad case, and to feel that she was far from being what her
relatives had a right to expect. To be thrown with a person who did not
find her silly or dull or commonplace, was a new experience.

"If I had been clever," Lucia said once to Mr. Burmistone,--"if I had
been clever, perhaps grandmamma would have been more satisfied with me. I
have often wished I had been clever."

"If you had been a boy," replied Mr. Burmistone rather grimly, "and had
squandered her money, and run into debt, and bullied her, you would have
been her idol, and she would have pinched and starved herself to supply
your highness's extravagance."

When the garden-party rumor began to take definite form, and there was no
doubt as to Mr. Burmistone's intentions, a discussion arose at once, and
went on in every genteel parlor. Would Lady Theobald allow Lucia to go?
and, if she did not allow her, would not such a course appear very
pointed indeed? It was universally decided that it would appear pointed,
but that Lady Theobald would not mind that in the least, and perhaps
would rather enjoy it than otherwise; and it was thought Lucia would not
go. And it is very likely that Lucia would have remained at home, if it
had not been for the influence of Mr. Francis Barold.

Making a call at Oldclough, he found his august relative in a very
majestic mood, and she applied to him again for information.

"Perhaps," she said, "you may be able to tell me whether it is true that
Belinda Bassett--_Belinda Bassett_," with emphasis, "has been invited by
Mr. Burmistone to assist him to receive his guests."

"Yes, it is true," was the reply: "I think I advised it myself.
Burmistone is fond of her. They are great friends. Man needs a