an under thirty may well be with a lady nearer fifty than
forty, who is not specially connected with him by any family tie; but
of Miss Prettyman he knew personally very much less. Miss Prettyman,
as has before been said, did not go out, and was therefore not common
to the eyes of the Silverbridgians. She did occasionally see her
friends in her own house, and Grace Crawley's lover, as the major had
come to be called, had been there on more than one occasion; but of
real personal intimacy between them there had hitherto existed none.
He might have spoken, perhaps, a dozen words to her in his life. He
had now more than a dozen to speak to her, but he hardly knew how to
commence them.

She had got up and curtseyed, and had then taken his hand and asked
him to sit down. "My sister tells me that you want to see me," she
said in her softest, mildest voice.

"I do, Miss Prettyman. I want to speak to you about a matter that
troubles me very much,--very much indeed."

"Anything that I can do, Major Grantly--"

"Thank you, yes. I know that you are very good, or I should not have
ventured to come to you. Indeed I shouldn't trouble you now, of
course, if it was only about myself. I know very well what a great
friend you are to Miss Crawley."

"Yes, I am. We love Grace dearly here."

"So do I," said the major bluntly; "I love her dearly, too." Then he
paused, as though he thought that Miss Prettyman ought to take up the
speech. But Miss Prettyman seemed to think quite differently, and he
was obliged to go on. "I don't know whether you have ever heard about
it, or noticed it, or--or--or--" He felt that he was very awkward,
and he blushed. Major as he was, he blushed as he sat before the old
woman, trying to tell his story, but not knowing how to tell it. "The
truth is, Miss Prettyman, I have done all but ask her to be my wife,
and now has come this terrible affair about her father."

"It is a terrible affair, Major Grantly; very terrible."

"By Jove, you may say that!"

"Of course Mr. Crawley is as innocent in the matter as you or I are."

"You think so, Miss Prettyman?"

"Think so! I feel sure of it. What; a clergyman of the Church of
England, a pious, hard-working country clergyman, whom we have known
among us by his good works for years, suddenly turn thief, and pilfer
a few pounds! It is not possible, Major Grantly. And the father
of such a daughter, too! It is not possible. It may do for men of
business to think so