s,' I said. Then as he answered me, he rose from his chair. 'We
stand,' said he, 'on the only perfect level on which such men can
meet each other. We are both gentlemen.' 'Sir,' I said, rising also,
'from the bottom of my heart I agree with you. I could not have
spoken such words; but coming from you who are rich to me who am
poor, they are honourable to the one and comfortable to the other.'"

"And after that?"

"He took down from the shelves a volume of sermons which his father
published many years ago, and presented it to me. I have it now under
my arm. It hath the old bishop's manuscript notes, which I will study
carefully." And thus the archdeacon had hit his bird on both wings.

CHAPTER LXXXIV

Conclusion

It now only remains for me to gather together a few loose strings,
and tie them together in a knot, so that my work may not become
untwisted. Early in July, Henry Grantly and Grace Crawley were
married in the parish church of Plumstead,--a great impropriety, as
to which neither Archdeacon Grantly nor Mr. Crawley could be got to
assent for a long time, but which was at last carried, not simply by
a union of Mrs. Grantly and Mrs. Crawley, nor even by the assistance
of Mrs. Arabin, but by the strong intervention of old Lady Lufton
herself. "Of course Miss Crawley ought to be married from St Ewold's
vicarage; but when the furniture has only been half got in, how is
it possible?" When Lady Lufton thus spoke, the archdeacon gave way,
and Mr. Crawley hadn't a leg to stand upon. Henry Grantly had not an
opinion upon the matter. He told his father that he expected that
they would marry him among them, and that that would be enough for
him. As for Grace, nobody even thought of asking her; and I doubt
whether she would have heard anything about the contest, had not
some tidings of it reached her from her lover. Married they were at
Plumstead,--and the breakfast was given with all that luxuriance of
plenty which was so dear to the archdeacon's mind. Mr. Crawley was
the officiating priest. With his hands dropping before him, folded
humbly, he told the archdeacon,--when that Plumstead question had
been finally settled in opposition to his wishes,--that he would fain
himself perform the ceremony by which his dearest daughter would
be bound to her marriage duties. "And who else should?" said the
archdeacon. Mr. Crawley muttered that he had not known how far his
reverend brother might have been willing to waive his