"

"And you may, perhaps, understand that, as Miss Crawley is now
staying with me, I owe it in a measure to her friends to ask you
whether they are aware of your intention."

"They are not aware of it."

"I know that at the present moment they are in great trouble."

Mrs. Dale was going on, but she was interrupted by Major Grantly.
"That is just it," he said. "There are circumstances at present which
make it almost impossible that I should go to Mr. Crawley and ask his
permission to address his daughter. I do not know whether you have
heard the whole story?"

"As much, I believe, as Grace could tell me."

"He is, I believe, in such a state of mental distress as to be hardly
capable of giving me a considerate answer. And I should not know how
to speak to him, or how not to speak to him, about this unfortunate
affair. But, Mrs. Dale, you will, I think, perceive that the same
circumstances make it imperative upon me to be explicit to Miss
Crawley. I think I am the last man to boast of a woman's regard, but
I had learned to think that I was not indifferent to Grace. If that
be so, what must she think of me if I stay away from her now?"

"She understands too well the weight of the misfortune which has
fallen upon her father, to suppose that any one not connected with
her can be bound to share it."

"That is just it. She will think that I am silent for that reason. I
have determined that that shall not keep me silent, and, therefore,
I have come here. I may, perhaps, be able to bring comfort to her in
her trouble. As regards my worldly position,--though, indeed, it will
not be very good,--as hers is not good either, you will not think
yourself bound to forbid me to see her on that head."

"Certainly not. I need hardly say that I fully understand that,
as regards money, you are offering everything where you can get
nothing."

"And you understand my feeling?"

"Indeed I do,--and appreciate the great nobility of your love for
Grace. You shall see her here, if you wish it,--and to-day, if you
choose to wait." Major Grantly said that he would wait and would see
Grace on that afternoon. Mrs. Dale again suggested that he should
lunch with her, but this he declined. She then proposed that he
should go across and call upon the squire, and thus consume his time.
But to this he also objected. He was not exactly in the humour, he
said, to renew so old and so slight an acquaintance at that time. Mr
Dale would probably have