?"

"He has been good to me, but in this I cannot obey him. He should not
ask me."

"You are wrong. You are indeed. He has a right to expect that you
will not bring disgrace upon the family."

"Nor will I;--except such disgrace as may attend upon poverty.
Good-by, mother. I wish you could have said one kind word to me."

"Have I not said a kind word?"

"Not as yet, mother."

"I would not for worlds speak unkindly to you. If it were not for
your father I would bid you bring whom you pleased home to me as your
wife; and I would be as a mother to her. And if this girl should
become your wife--"

"It shall not be my fault if she does not."

"I will try to love her--some day."

Then the major went, leaving Edith at the rectory, as requested by
his mother. His own dog-cart and servant were at Plumstead, and he
drove himself home to Cosby Lodge.

When the archdeacon returned the news was told to him at once. "Henry
has gone to Allington to propose to Miss Crawley," said Mrs. Grantly.

"Gone,--without speaking to me!"

"He left his love, and said that it was useless his remaining, as he
knew he should only offend you."

"He has made his bed, and he must lie upon it," said the archdeacon.
And then there was not another word said about Grace Crawley on that
occasion.

CHAPTER XXIII

Miss Lily Dale's Resolution

[Illustration]

The ladies at the Small House at Allington breakfasted always at
nine,--a liberal nine; and the postman whose duty it was to deliver
letters in that village at half-past eight, being also liberal in
his ideas as to time, always arrived punctually in the middle of
breakfast, so that Mrs. Dale expected her letters, and Lily hers,
just before their second cup of tea, as though the letters formed
a part of the morning meal. Jane, the maidservant, always brought
them in, and handed them to Mrs. Dale,--for Lily had in these days
come to preside at the breakfast table; and then there would be an
examination of the outsides before the envelopes were violated, and
as each knew pretty well all the circumstances of the correspondence
of the other, there would be some guessing as to what this or that
epistle might contain; and after that a reading out loud of passages,
and not unfrequently of the entire letter. But now, at the time
of which I am speaking, Grace Crawley was at the Small House, and
therefore the common practice was somewhat in abeyance.

On one of the first days of the n