Part 47 (1/2)

”It is hardly any secret that she is very anxious to make a match between Lord Lufton and Griselda. And though that might be a very proper arrangement if it were fixed--”

”Lord Lufton marry Griselda!” said the archdeacon, speaking quick and raising his eyebrows. His mind had as yet been troubled by but few thoughts respecting his child's future establishment. ”I had never dreamt of such a thing.”

”But other people have done more than dream of it, archdeacon. As regards the match itself, it would, I think, be un.o.bjectionable. Lord Lufton will not be a very rich man, but his property is respectable, and as far as I can learn his character is on the whole good. If they like each other, I should be contented with such a marriage. But, I must own, I am not quite 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 unauthorized pa.s.sion. But as matters now stood, with those two strings to her bow, and with that Lufton-Grantly alliance treaty in existence--of which she, Griselda herself, knew nothing--might it not be possible that the poor child should stumble through want of adequate direction? Guided by these thoughts, Mrs. Grantly had resolved to say a few words before she left London. So she wrote a line to her daughter, and Griselda reached Mount Street at two o'clock in Lady Lufton's carriage, which, during the interview, waited for her at the beer-shop round the corner.

”And papa won't be Bishop of Westminster?” said the young lady, when the doings of the giants had been sufficiently explained to make her understand that all those hopes were over.

”No, my dear; at any rate not now.”

”What a shame! I thought it was all settled. What's the good, mamma, of Lord De Terrier being prime minister, if he can't make whom he likes a bishop?”

”I don't think that Lord De Terrier has behaved at all well to your father. However, that's a long question, and we can't go into it now.”

”How glad those Proudies will be!”

Griselda would have talked by the hour on this subject had her mother allowed her, but it was necessary that Mrs. Grantly should go to other matters. She began about Lady Lufton, saying what a dear woman her ladys.h.i.+p was; and then went on to say that Griselda was to remain in London as long as it suited her friend and hostess to stay there with her; but added, that this might probably not be very long, as it was notorious that Lady Lufton, when in London, was always in a hurry to get back to Framley.

”But I don't think she is in such a hurry this year, mamma,” said Griselda, who in the month of May preferred Bruton Street to Plumstead, and had no objection whatever to the coronet on the panels of Lady Lufton's coach.

And then Mrs. Grantly commenced her explanation--very cautiously.

”No, my dear, I daresay she is not in such a hurry this year,--that is, as long as you remain with her.”

”I am sure she is very kind.”

”She is very kind, and you ought to love her very much. I know I do.

I have no friend in the world for whom I have a greater regard than for Lady Lufton. It is that which makes me so happy to leave you with her.”

”All the same, I wish that you and papa had remained up; that is, if they had made papa a bishop.”

”It's no good thinking of that now, my dear. What I particularly wanted to say to you was this: I think you should know what are the ideas which Lady Lufton entertains.”

”Her ideas!” said Griselda, who had never troubled herself much in thinking about other people's thoughts.

”Yes, Griselda. While you were staying down at Framley Court, and also, I suppose, since you have been up here in Bruton Street, you must have seen a good deal of--Lord Lufton.”

”He doesn't come very often to Bruton Street,--that is to say, not _very_ often.”