the world even
than the elders had then projected for her. There had come no such
alliance; but the intimacy had not ceased, and there was nothing in
itself surprising in the fact that Major Grantly should be staying at
Framley Court. But the archdeacon, when he heard the news, bethought
him at once of Grace Crawley. Could it be possible that his old
friend Lady Lufton,--Lady Lufton whom he had known and trusted all
his life, whom he had ever regarded as a pillar of the Church in
Barsetshire,--should be now untrue to him in a matter so closely
affecting his interests? Men when they are worried by fears and
teased by adverse circumstances become suspicious of those on whom
suspicion should never rest. It was hardly possible, the archdeacon
thought, that Lady Lufton should treat him so unworthily,--but the
circumstances were strong against his friend. Lady Lufton had induced
Miss Crawley to go to Framley, much against his advice, at a time
when such a visit seemed to him to be very improper; and it now
appeared that his son was to be there at the same time,--a fact of
which Lady Lufton had made no mention to him whatever. Why had not
Lady Lufton told him that Henry Grantly was coming to Framley Court?
The reader, whose interest in the matter will be less keen than
was the archdeacon's, will know very well why Lady Lufton had said
nothing about the major's visit. The reader will remember that Lady
Lufton, when she saw the archdeacon, was as ignorant as to the
intended visit as was the archdeacon himself. But the archdeacon was
uneasy, troubled, and suspicious;--and he suspected his old friend
unworthily.

He spoke to his wife about it within a very few hours of the arrival
of the tidings by those invisible wires. He had already told her that
Miss Crawley was to go to Framley parsonage, and that he thought that
Mrs. Robarts was wrong to receive her at such a time. "It is only
intended for good-nature," Mrs. Grantly had said. "It is misplaced
good-nature at the present moment," the archdeacon had replied. Mrs
Grantly had not thought it worth her while to undertake at the moment
any strong defence of the Framley people. She knew well how odious
was the name of Crawley in her husband's ears, and she felt that the
less that was said at present about the Crawleys the better for the
peace of the rectory at Plumstead. She had therefore allowed the
expression of his disapproval to pass unchallenged. But now he came
upon her with