"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 ladyship 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."
"H-m," e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed Mrs. Grantly, very gently. She would willingly have repressed the sound altogether, but it had been too much for her. If she found reason to think that Lady Lufton was playing her false, she would immediately take her daughter away, break up the treaty, and prepare for the Hartletop alliance. Such were the thoughts that ran through her mind. But she knew all the while that Lady Lufton was not false. The fault was not with Lady Lufton; nor, perhaps, altogether with Lord Lufton. Mrs. Grantly had understood the full force of the complaint which Lady Lufton had made against her daughter; and though she had of course defended her child, and on the whole had defended her successfully, yet she confessed to herself that Griselda"s chance of a first-rate establishment would be better if she were a little more impulsive. A man does not wish to marry a statue, let the statue be ever so statuesque. She could not teach her daughter to be impulsive, any more than she could teach her to be six feet high; but might it not be possible to teach her to seem so? The task was a very delicate one, even for a mother"s hand.
"Of course he cannot be at home now as much as he was down in the country, when he was living in the same house," said Mrs. Grantly, whose business it was to take Lord Lufton"s part at the present moment. "He must be at his club, and at the House of Lords, and in twenty places."
"He is very fond of going to parties, and he dances beautifully."
"I am sure he does. I have seen as much as that myself, and I think I know some one with whom he likes to dance." And the mother gave her daughter a loving little squeeze.
"Do you mean me, mamma?"
"Yes, I do mean you, my dear. And is it not true? Lady Lufton says that he likes dancing with you better than with any one else in London."
"I don"t know," said Griselda, looking down upon the ground.
Mrs. Grantly thought that this upon the whole was rather a good opening. It might have been better. Some point of interest more serious in its nature than that of a waltz might have been found on which to connect her daughter"s sympathies with those of her future husband. But any point of interest was better than none; and it is so difficult to find points of interest in persons who by their nature are not impulsive.
"Lady Lufton says so, at any rate," continued Mrs. Grantly, ever so cautiously. "She thinks that Lord Lufton likes no partner better.
What do you think yourself, Griselda?"
"I don"t know, mamma."
"But young ladies must think of such things, must they not?"
"Must they, mamma?"
"I suppose they do, don"t they? The truth is, Griselda, that Lady Lufton thinks that if-- Can you guess what it is she thinks?"
"No, mamma." But that was a fib on Griselda"s part.
"She thinks that my Griselda would make the best possible wife in the world for her son; and I think so too. I think that her son will be a very fortunate man if he can get such a wife. And now what do you think, Griselda?"
"I don"t think anything, mamma."
But that would not do. It was absolutely necessary that she should think, and absolutely necessary that her mother should tell her so.
Such a degree of unimpulsiveness as this would lead to--heaven knows what results! Lufton-Grantly treaties and Hartletop interests would be all thrown away upon a young lady who would not think anything of a n.o.ble suitor sighing for her smiles. Besides, it was not natural.
Griselda, as her mother knew, had never been a girl of headlong feeling; but still she had had her likes and her dislikes. In that matter of the bishopric she was keen enough; and no one could evince a deeper interest in the subject of a well-made new dress than Griselda Grantly. It was not possible that she should be indifferent as to her future prospects, and she must know that those prospects depended mainly on her marriage. Her mother was almost angry with her, but nevertheless she went on very gently:
"You don"t think anything! But, my darling, you must think. You must make up your mind what would be your answer if Lord Lufton were to propose to you. That is what Lady Lufton wishes him to do."
"But he never will, mamma."
"And if he did?"
"But I"m sure he never will. He doesn"t think of such a thing at all--and--and--"
"And what, my dear?"