hdeacon, after the funeral, had returned to Plumstead,
and thither the dean went to him before he saw the bishop. He did
succeed,--he and Mrs. Grantly between them,--but with very great
difficulty, in obtaining a conditional promise. They had both thought
that when the archdeacon became fully aware that Grace was to be his
daughter-in-law, he would at once have been delighted to have an
opportunity of extricating from his poverty a clergyman with whom it
was his fate to be so closely connected. But he fought the matter
on twenty different points. He declared at first that as it was his
primary duty to give to the people of St Ewold's the best clergyman
he could select for them he could not give the preference to Mr
Crawley, because Mr. Crawley, in spite of all his zeal and piety, was
a man so quaint in his manners and so eccentric in his mode of speech
as not to be the best clergyman whom he could select. "What is my
old friend Thorne to do with a man in his parish who won't drink
a glass of wine with him?". For Ullathorne, the seat of that Mr
Wilfred Thorne who had been so guilty in the matter of the foxes,
was situated in the parish of St Ewold's. When Mrs. Grantly proposed
that Mr. Thorne's consent should be asked, the archdeacon became very
angry. He had never heard so unecclesiastical a proposition in his
life. It was his special duty to the best he could for Mr. Thorne, but
it was specially his duty to do so without consulting Mr. Thorne about
it. As the archdeacon's objection had been argued simply on the point
of a glass of wine, both the dean and Mrs. Grantly thought that he was
unreasonable. But they had their point to gain, and therefore they
only flattered him. They were quite sure that Mr. Thorne would like to
have a clergyman in the parish who would himself be closely connected
with the archdeacon. Then Dr. Grantly alleged that he might find
himself in a trap. What if he conferred the living of St Ewold's on
Mr. Crawley and after all there should be no marriage between his son
and Grace? "Of course they'll be married," said Mrs. Grantly. "It's
all very well for you to say that, my dear; but the whole family are
so queer that there is no knowing what the girl may do. She may take
up some other fad now, and refuse him point blank." "She has never
taken up any fad," said Mrs. Grantly, who now mounted almost to wrath
in defence of her future daughter-in-law, "and you are wrong to say
that she has. She has behav