er bow.

"But, mamma," said Griselda, in a moment of unwatched intercourse
between the mother and daughter, "is it really true that they are
going to make papa a bishop?"

"We can tell nothing as yet, my dear. People in the world are talking
about it. Your papa has been a good deal with Lord De Terrier."

"And isn't he Prime Minister?"

"Oh, yes; I am happy to say that he is."

"I thought the Prime Minister could make any one a bishop that he
chooses,--any clergyman, that is."

"But there is no see vacant," said Mrs. Grantly.

"Then there isn't any chance," said Griselda, looking very glum.

"They are going to have an Act of Parliament for making two more
bishops. That's what they are talking about at least. And if they
do--"

"Papa will be Bishop of Westminster--won't he? And we shall live in
London?"

"But you must not talk about it, my dear."

"No, I won't. But, mamma, a Bishop of Westminster will be higher
than a Bishop of Barchester; won't he? I shall so like to be able
to snub those Miss Proudies." It will therefore be seen that there
were matters on which even Griselda Grantly could be animated. Like
the rest of her family she was devoted to the Church. Late on that
afternoon the archdeacon returned home to dine in Mount Street,
having spent the whole of the day between the Treasury chambers, a
meeting of Convocation, and his club. And when he did get home it
was soon manifest to his wife that he was not laden with good news.
"It is almost incredible," he said, standing with his back to the
drawing-room fire.

"What is incredible?" said his wife, sharing her husband's anxiety to
the full.

"If I had not learned it as fact, I would not have believed it, even
of Lord Brock," said the archdeacon.

"Learned what?" said the anxious wife.

"After all, they are going to oppose the bill."

"Impossible!" said Mrs. Grantly.

"But they are."

"The bill for the two new bishops, archdeacon? oppose their own
bill!"

"Yes--oppose their own bill. It is almost incredible; but so it is.
Some changes have been forced upon us; little things which they had
forgotten--quite minor matters; and they now say that they will
be obliged to divide against us on these twopenny-halfpenny,
hair-splitting points. It is Lord Brock's own doing too, after
all that he said about abstaining from factious opposition to the
Government."

"I believe there is nothing too bad or too false for that man," said
Mrs. Grantly.