ourse we all know that the charge must be altogether
unfounded, and mamma says that the truth will be sure to
show itself at last. But that conviction does not cure the
evil, and I can well understand that your father should
suffer grievously; and I pity your mother quite as much as
I do him.

As for Major Grantly, if he be such a man as I took him to
be from the little I saw of him, all this would make no
difference to him. I am sure that it ought to make none.
Whether it should not make a difference in you is another
question. I think it should; and I think your answer to
him should be that you could not even consider any such
proposition while your father was in so great trouble. I
am so much older than you, and seem to have had so much
experience, that I do not scruple, as you will see, to
come down upon you with all the weight of my wisdom.

About that other subject I had rather say nothing. I have
known your cousin all my life, almost; and I regard no one
more kindly than I do him. When I think of my friends, he
is always one of the dearest. But when one thinks of going
beyond friendship, even if one tries to do so, there are
so many barriers!

Your affectionate friend,

LILY DALE.

Mamma bids me say that she would be delighted to have you
here whenever it might suit you to come; and I add to this
message my entreaty that you will come at once. You say
that you think you ought to leave Miss Prettyman's for a
while. I can well understand your feeling; but as your
sister is with your mother, surely you had better come
to us,--I mean quite at once. I will not scruple to tell
you what mamma says, because I know your good sense. She
says that as the interest of the school may possibly be
concerned, and as you have no regular engagement, she
thinks you ought to leave Silverbridge; but she says that
it will be better that you come to us than that you should
go home. If you went home, people might say that you had
left in some sort of disgrace. Come to us, and when all
this has been put right, then you go back to Silverbridge;
and then, if a certain person speaks again, you can make a
different answer. Mamma quite understands that you are to
come; so you have only got to ask your own mamma, and come
at once.

This letter, as the reader will understand, did not reach Grace
Crawley til