r. And then it began to be rumoured in
the world that the minister had disposed at any rate of the see
of Westminster. This present time was a very nervous one for Mrs.
Grantly. What might be the aspirations of the archdeacon himself,
we will not stop to inquire. It may be that time and experience had
taught him the futility of earthly honours, and made him content
with the comfortable opulence of his Barsetshire rectory. But there
is no theory of Church discipline which makes it necessary that
a clergyman's wife should have an objection to a bishopric. The
archdeacon probably was only anxious to give a disinterested aid to
the minister, but Mrs. Grantly did long to sit in high places, and
be at any rate equal to Mrs. Proudie. It was for her children, she
said to herself, that she was thus anxious--that they should have a
good position before the world, and the means of making the best of
themselves. "One is able to do nothing, you know, shut up there, down
at Plumstead," she had remarked to Lady Lufton on the occasion of
her first visit to London, and yet the time was not long past when
she had thought that rectory house at Plumstead to be by no means
insufficient or contemptible. And then there came a question whether
or no Griselda should go back to her mother; but this idea was very
strongly opposed by Lady Lufton, and ultimately with success. "I
really think the dear girl is very happy with me," said Lady Lufton;
"and if ever she is to belong to me more closely, it will be so well
that we should know and love one another."

To tell the truth, Lady Lufton had been trying hard to know and love
Griselda, but hitherto she had scarcely succeeded to the full extent
of her wishes. That she loved Griselda was certain,--with that sort
of love which springs from a person's volition and not from the
judgement. She had said all along to herself and others that she did
love Griselda Grantly. She had admired the young lady's face, liked
her manner, approved of her fortune and family, and had selected her
for a daughter-in-law in a somewhat impetuous manner. Therefore she
loved her. But it was by no means clear to Lady Lufton that she did
as yet know her young friend. The match was a plan of her own, and
therefore she stuck to it as warmly as ever, but she began to have
some misgivings whether or no the dear girl would be to her herself
all that she had dreamed of in a daughter-in-law. "But, dear Lady
Lufton," said Mrs. Grantly,