, lawyers and such like, who are obliged to think
in accordance with the evidence, as they call it; but to my mind the
idea is monstrous. I don't know how he got it, and I don't care; but
I'm quite sure he did not steal it. Whoever heard of anybody becoming
so base as that all at once?"

The major was startled by her eloquence, and by the indignant tone of
voice in which it was expressed. It seemed to tell him that she would
give him no sympathy in that which he had come to say to her, and to
upbraid him already in that he was not prepared to do the magnificent
thing of which he had thought when he had been building his castles
in the air. Why should he not do the magnificent thing? Miss
Prettyman's eloquence was so strong that it half convinced him that
the Barchester Club and Mr. Walker had come to a wrong conclusion
after all.

"And how does Miss Crawley bear it?" he asked, desirous of postponing
for a while any declaration of his own purpose.

"She is very unhappy, of course. Not that she thinks evil of her
father."

"Of course she does not think him guilty."

"Nobody thinks him so in this house, Major Grantly," said the little
woman, very imperiously. "But Grace is, naturally enough, very
sad;--very sad indeed. I do not think I can ask you to see her
to-day."

"I was not thinking of it," said the major.

"Poor, dear child! it is a great trial for her. Do you wish me to
give her any message, Major Grantly?"

The moment had now come in which he must say that which he had come
to say. The little woman waited for an answer, and as he was there,
within her power as it were, he must speak. I fear that what he
said will not be approved by any strong-minded reader. I fear that
our lover will henceforth be considered by such a one as being a
weak, wishy-washy man, who had hardly any mind of his own to speak
of;--that he was a man of no account, as the poor people say. "Miss
Prettyman, what message ought I to send to her?" he said.

"Nay, Major Grantly, how can I tell you that? How can I put words
into your mouth?"

"It isn't the words," he said; "but the feelings."

"And how can I tell the feelings of your heart?"

"Oh, as for that, I know what my feelings are. I do love her with all
my heart;--I do, indeed. A fortnight ago I was only thinking whether
she would accept me when I asked her,--wondering whether I was too
old for her, and whether she would mind having Edith to take care
of."

"She is very fond