fear that the engagement, if made,
could not but be long. I should be sorry that he should not take his
degree. And I do not think it wise to send a lad up to the University
hampered with the serious feeling that he has already betrothed himself.

"I tell you all just as it is, and I leave it to your wisdom to suggest
what had better be done. He wished me to promise that I would undertake
to induce you to tell Miss Wortle of his conversation with me. He said
that he had a right to demand so much as that, and that, though he would
not for the present go to Bowick, he should write to you. The young
gentleman seems to have a will of his own,--which I cannot say that I
regret. What you will do as to the young lady,--whether you will or will
not tell her what I have written,--I must leave to yourself. If you do, I
am to send word to her from Lady Bracy to say that she shall be delighted
to see her here. She had better, however, come when that inflammatory
young gentleman shall be at Oxford. Yours very faithfully,

"BRACY."

This letter certainly did a great deal to invigorate the Doctor, and to
console him in his troubles. Even though the debated marriage might prove
to be impossible, as it had been declared by the voices of all the Wortles
one after another, still there was something in the tone in which it was
discussed by the young man's father which was in itself a relief. There
was, at any rate, no contempt in the letter. "I may at once say that, as
far as you and your girl are concerned, I shall be very well pleased."
That, at any rate, was satisfactory. And the more he looked at it the
less he thought that it need be altogether impossible. If Lord Bracy
liked it, and Lady Bracy liked it,--and young Carstairs, as to whose
liking there seemed to be no reason for any doubt,--he did not see why it
should be impossible. As to Mary,--he could not conceive that she should
make objection if all the others were agreed. How could she possibly fail
to love the young man if encouraged to do so? Suitors who are
good-looking, rich, of high rank, sweet-tempered, and at the same time
thoroughly devoted, are not wont to be discarded. All the difficulty lay
in the lad's youth. After all, how many noblemen have done well in the
world without taking a degree? Degrees, too, have been taken by married
men. And, again, young men have been persistent before now, even to the
extent of waiting three years. Long engagem