‘Well!’ said Lady Lufton, stopping him
in the passage—’have you seen her?’
’She is a good girl—a very good girl.
I am in a great hurry, and hardly know how to tell
you more now.’
‘You say that she is a good girl.’
’I say that she is a very good girl. An
angel could not have behaved better. I will tell
you some day, Lady Lufton, but I can hardly tell you
now.’
When the archdeacon was gone old Lady Lufton confided
to young Lady Lufton her very strong opinion that
many months would not be gone before Grace Crawley
would be the mistress of Cosby Lodge. ’It
will be a great promotion,’ said the old lady,
with a little toss of her head. When Grace was
interrogated afterwards by Mrs Robarts as to what had
passed between her and the archdeacon she had very
little to say as to the interview. ‘No
he did not scold me,’ she replied to an inquiry
from her friend. ‘There is no engagement,’
said Grace. ’But I suppose you acknowledged,
my dear, that a future engagement is quite possible?’
’I told him, Mrs Robarts,’ Grace answered,
after hesitating for a moment, ’that I would
never marry his son as long as papa was suspected by
any one in the world of being a thief. And I
will keep my word.’ but she said nothing to
Mrs Robarts of the pledge which the archdeacon had
made to her.
THE CROSS-GRAINEDNESS OF MEN
By the time that the archdeacon reached Plumstead
his enthusiasm in favour of Grace Crawley had somewhat
cooled itself; and the language which from time to
time he prepared for conveying his impressions to his
wife, became less fervid as he approached his home.
There was his pledge, and by that he would abide;—and
so much he would make both his wife and son understand.
But any idea which he might have entertained for a
moment of extending the promise he had given and relaxing
that given to him was gone before he saw his own chimneys.
Indeed, I fear he had by that time begun to feel that
the only salvation now open to him must come from
the jury’s verdict. If the jury should declare
Mr Crawley to be guilty, then—; he would
not say even to himself that in such case all would
be right, but he did feel that much as he might regret
the fate of the poor Crawleys, and of the girl whom
in his warmth he had declared to be almost an angel,
nevertheless to him personally such a verdict would
bring consolatory comfort.
‘I have seen Miss Crawley,’ he said to
his wife, as soon as he had closed the door of his
study, before he had been two minutes out of the chaise.
He had determined that he would dash at the subject
at once, and he thus carried his resolution into effect.
‘You have seen Grace Crawley?’
’Yes; I went up to the parsonage and called
upon her. Lady Lufton advised me to do so.’
