w was it possible that
they should not care more for their daughter,--for their own flesh
and blood, than for the incidental welfare of this rich man? As
regarded the man himself they had heard everything that was good.
Such a marriage was like the opening of paradise to their child. "Nil
conscire sibi," said the father to himself, as he buckled on his
armour for the fight.

When he had waited for a moment or two the major began. "Mrs
Crawley," he said, addressing himself to the mother, "I do not quite
know how far you may be aware that I,--that I have for some time
been,--been acquainted with your eldest daughter."

"I have heard from her that she is acquainted with you," said Mrs
Crawley, almost panting with anxiety.

"I may as well make a clean breast of it at once," said the major,
smiling, "and say outright that I have come here to request your
permission and her father's to ask her to be my wife." Then he was
silent, and for a few moments neither Mr. nor Mrs. Crawley replied to
him. She looked at her husband, and he gazed at the fire, and the
smile died away from the major's face, as he watched the solemnity
of them both. There was something almost forbidding in the peculiar
gravity of Mr. Crawley's countenance when, as at present, something
operated within him to cause him to express dissent from any
proposition that was made to him. "I do not know how far this may be
altogether new to you, Mrs. Crawley," said the major, waiting for a
reply.

"It is not new to us," said Mrs. Crawley.

"May I hope, then, that you will not disapprove?"

"Sir," said Mr. Crawley, "I am so placed by the untoward circumstances
of my life that I can hardly claim to exercise over my own daughter
that authority which should belong to a parent."

"My dear, do not say that," exclaimed Mrs. Crawley.

"But I do say it. Within three weeks of this time I may be a
prisoner, subject to the criminal laws of my country. At this moment
I am without the power of earning bread for myself, or for my wife,
or for my children. Major Grantly, you have even now seen the
departure of the gentleman who has been sent here to take my place in
the parish. I am, as it were, an outlaw here, and entitled neither to
obedience nor respect from those who under other circumstances would
be bound to give me both."

"Major Grantly," said the poor woman, "no husband or father in the
county is more closely obeyed or more thoroughly respected and
loved."

"I