uite satisfied at the idea of leaving her all
alone with Lady Lufton. People will look on it as a settled thing,
when it is not settled--and very probably may not be settled; and
that will do the poor girl harm. She is very much admired; there can
be no doubt of that; and Lord Dumbello--"

The archdeacon opened his eyes still wider. He had had no idea that
such a choice of sons-in-law was being prepared for him; and, to
tell the truth, was almost bewildered by the height of his wife's
ambition. Lord Lufton, with his barony and twenty thousand a year,
might be accepted as just good enough; but failing him there was an
embryo marquis, whose fortune would be more than ten times as great,
all ready to accept his child! And then he thought, as husbands
sometimes will think, of Susan Harding as she was when he had gone
a-courting to her under the elms before the house in the warden's
garden at Barchester, and of dear old Mr. Harding, his wife's father,
who still lived in humble lodgings in that city; and as he thought,
he wondered at and admired the greatness of that lady's mind. "I
never can forgive Lord De Terrier," said the lady, connecting various
points together in her own mind.

"That's nonsense," said the archdeacon. "You must forgive him."

"And I must confess that it annoys me to leave London at present."

"It can't be helped," said the archdeacon, somewhat gruffly; for he
was a man who, on certain points, chose to have his own way--and had
it.

"Oh, no: I know it can't be helped," said Mrs. Grantly, in a tone
which implied a deep injury. "I know it can't be helped. Poor
Griselda!" And then they went to bed. On the next morning Griselda
came to her, and in an interview that was strictly private, her
mother said more to her than she had ever yet spoken, as to the
prospects of her future life. Hitherto, on this subject, Mrs. Grantly
had said little or nothing. She would have been well pleased that her
daughter should have received the incense of Lord Lufton's vows--or,
perhaps, as well pleased had it been the incense of Lord Dumbello's
vows--without any interference on her part. In such case her child,
she knew, would have told her with quite sufficient eagerness, and
the matter in either case would have been arranged as a very pretty
love match. She had no fear of any impropriety or of any rashness
on Griselda's part. She had thoroughly known her daughter when she
boasted that Griselda would never indulge in an