第232章

'A gentleman, Mrs Robarts! What gentleman?' But Grace, though she asked the questions, conceived that the gentleman must be Henry Grantly.

Her mind did not suggest to her the possibility of any other gentleman coming to see her.

'You must not be surprised, or allow yourself to be frightened.'

'Oh, Mrs Robarts, who is it?'

'It is Major Grantly's father.'

'The archdeacon?'

'Yes, dear; Archdeacon Grantly. He is in the drawing-room.'

'Must I see him, Mrs Robarts?'

'Well, Grace--I think you must. I hardly know how you can refuse. He is an intimate friend of everybody here at Framley.'

'What will he say to me?'

'Nay; that I cannot tell. I suppose you know--'

'He has come, no doubt, to bid me having nothing to say to his son. He need not have troubled himself. But he may say what he likes. I am no coward, and I will go to him.'

'Stop a moment, Grace. Come into my room for an instant. The children have pulled your hair about.' But Grace, though she followed Mrs Robarts into the bedroom, would have nothing done to her hair. She was too proud for that--and we may say, also, too little confident in any good which such resources might effect on her behalf. 'Never mind about that,' she said. 'What am I to say to him?' Mrs Robarts paused before she replied, feeling that the matter was one which required some deliberation. 'Tell me what I must say to him?' said Grace, repeating her question.

'I hardly know what your own feelings are, my dear.'

'Yes, you do. You do know. If I had all the world to give, I would give it all to Major Grantly.'

'Tell him that, then.'

'No, I will not tell him that. Never mind about my frock, Mrs Robarts.

I do not care for that. I will tell him that I love his son and his granddaughter too well to injure them. I will tell him nothing else. Imight as well go now.' Mrs Robarts, as she looked at Grace, was astonished at the serenity of her face. And yet when her hand was in the drawing-room door Grace hesitated, looked back, and trembled. Mrs Robarts blew a kiss to her from the stairs; and then the door was opened, and the girl found herself in the presence of the archdeacon. He was standing on the rug, with his back to the fire, and his heavy ecclesiastical hat was placed on the middle of the round table. The hat caught Grace's eyes at the moment of her entrance, and she felt that all the thunders of the Church were contained within it. And then the archdeacon himself was so big and so clerical, and so imposing. Her father's aspect was severe, but the severity of her father's face was essentially different from that expressed by the archdeacon. Whatever impression came from her father came from the man himself. There was no outward adornment there; there was, so to say, no wig about Mr Crawley.

Now the archdeacon was not exactly adorned; but he was so thoroughly imbued with high clerical belongings and sacerdotal fitnesses as to appear always as a walking, sitting, or standing impersonation of parsondom. To poor Grace, as she entered the room, he appeared to be a personation of parsondom in its severest aspect.

'Miss Crawley, I believe?' said he.

'Yes, sir,' said she, curtseying ever so slightly, as she stood before him at some considerable distance.

His first idea was that his son must be indeed a fool if he was going to give up Cosby Lodge and all Barsetshire, and retire to Pau, for so slight and unattractive a creature as he now saw before him. But this idea stayed with him only for a moment. As he continued to gaze at her during the interview he came to perceive that there was very much more than he had perceived at the first glance, and that his son, after all, had had eyes to see, though perhaps not a heart to understand.

'Will you take a chair?' he said. Then Grace sat down, still at a distance from the archdeacon, and he kept his place upon the rug. He felt that there would be a difficulty in making her feel the full force of his eloquence all across the room; and yet he did not know how to bring himself nearer to her. She became suddenly very important in his eyes, and he was to some extent afraid of her. She was so slight, so meek, so young; and yet there was about her something so beautifully feminine--and, withal, so like a lady--that he felt instinctively that he could not attack her with harsh words. Had her lips been full, and her colour high, and had her eyes rolled, had she put forth against him any of that ordinary artillery with which youthful feminine batteries are charged, he would have been ready to rush to combat. But this girl, about whom his son had gone mad, sat there as passively as though she were conscious of the possession of no artillery. There was not a single gun fired from beneath her eyelids. He knew not why, but he respected his son now more than he had respected him for the last two months;--more, perhaps, than he had ever respected him before. He was an eager as ever against the marriage;--but in thinking of his son in what he said and did after these few moments of the interview, he ceased to think of him with contempt. The creature before him was a woman who grew in his opinion till he began to feel that she was in truth fit to be the wife of his son--if only she were not a pauper, and the daughter of a mad curate, and alas! too probably, of a thief. Though his feeling towards the girl had changed, his duty to himself, his family, and his son, was the same as ever, and therefore he began his task.

'Perhaps you had not expected to see me?' he said.

'No, indeed, sir.'