l after the all-important Thursday; but before that day
had come round, Grace had told Miss Prettyman,--had told both the
Miss Prettymans,--that she was resolved to leave them. She had done
this without even consulting her mother, driven to it by various
motives. She knew that her father's conduct was being discussed by
the girls in the school, and that things were said of him which it
could not but be for the disadvantage of Miss Prettyman that any one
should say of a teacher in her establishment. She felt, too, that
she could not hold up her head in Silverbridge in these days, as it
would become her to do if she retained her position. She did struggle
gallantly, and succeeded much more nearly than she was herself
aware. She was all but able to carry herself as though no terrible
accusation was being made against her father. Of the struggle,
however, she was not herself the less conscious, and she told herself
that on that account also she must go. And then she must go also
because of Major Grantly. Whether he was minded to come and speak
to her that one other needed word, or whether he was not so minded,
it would be better that she should be away from Silverbridge. If he
spoke it she could only answer him by a negative; and if he were
minded not to speak it, would it not be better that she should leave
herself the power of thinking that his silence had been caused by her
absence, and not by his coldness or indifference?

She asked, therefore, for an interview with Miss Prettyman, and was
shown into the elder sister's room, at eleven o'clock on the Tuesday
morning. The elder Miss Prettyman never came into the school herself
till twelve, but was in the habit of having interviews with the young
ladies,--which were sometimes very awful in their nature,--for the
two previous hours. During these interviews an immense amount of
business was done, and the fortunes in life of some girls were said
to have been there made or marred; as when, for instance, Miss
Crimpton had been advised to stay at home with her uncle in England,
instead of going out with her sisters to India, both of which sisters
were married within three months of their landing in Bombay. The way
in which she gave her counsel on such occasions was very efficacious.
No one knew better than Miss Prettyman that a cock can crow most
effectively in his own farmyard, and therefore all crowing intended
to be effective was done by her within the shrine of her own pecul