said the archdeacon

"For shame, my dear," said his wife.

"No shame at all. If we are to have a thief among us, I'd sooner find
him in a bad man than a good one. Besides, we should have a change at
the palace, which would be a great thing."

"But is it not odd that Eleanor should have heard nothing of it?"
said Mrs. Grantly.

"It's odd that you should not have mentioned it yourself."

"I did not, certainly; nor you, papa, I suppose?"

Mr. Harding acknowledged that he had not spoken of it, and then they
calculated that perhaps she might not have received any letter from
her husband written since the news had reached him. "Besides, why
should he have mentioned it?" said the major. "He only knows as yet
of the inquiry about the cheque, and can have heard nothing of what
was done by the magistrates."

"Still it seems so odd that Eleanor should not have known of it,
seeing that we have been talking of nothing else for the last week,"
said Mrs. Grantly.

For two days the major said not a word of Grace Crawley to any one.
Nothing could be more courteous and complaisant than was his father's
conduct to him. Anything that he wanted for Edith was to be done. For
himself there was no trouble which would not be taken. His hunting,
and his shooting, and his fishing seemed to have become matters of
paramount consideration to his father. And then the archdeacon became
very confidential about money matters,--not offering anything to his
son, which, as he well knew, would have been seen through as palpable
bribery and corruption,--but telling him of this little scheme and of
that, of one investment and of another;--how he contemplated buying a
small property here, and spending a few thousands on building there.
"Of course it is all for you and your brother," said the archdeacon,
with that benevolent sadness which is used habitually by fathers on
such occasions; "and I like you to know what it is that I am doing.
I told Charles about the London property the last time I was up,"
said the archdeacon, "and there shall be no difference between
him and you, if all goes well." This was very good-natured on the
archdeacon's part, and was not strictly necessary, as Charles was the
eldest son; but the major understood it perfectly. "There shall be an
elysium opened to you, if only you will not do that terrible thing of
which you spoke when last here." The archdeacon uttered no such words
as these, and did not even allude to Grace Craw