ents are bad,--no doubt.
Everybody has always said so. But a long engagement may be better than
none at all.

He at last made up his mind that he would speak to Mary; but he determined
that he would consult his wife first. Consulting Mrs. Wortle, on his
part, generally amounted to no more than instructing her. He found it
sometimes necessary to talk her over, as he had done in that matter of
visiting Mrs. Peacocke; but when he set himself to work he rarely failed.
She had nowhere else to go for a certain foundation and support.
Therefore he hardly doubted much when he began his operation about this
suggested engagement.

"I have got that letter this morning from Lord Bracy," he said, handing
her the document.

"Oh dear! Has he heard about Carstairs?"

"You had better read it."

"He has told it all," she exclaimed, when she had finished the first
sentence.

"He has told it all, certainly. But you had better read the letter
through."

Then she seated herself and read it, almost trembling, however, as she
went on with it. "Oh dear;--that is very nice what he says about you and
Mary."

"It is all very nice as far as that goes. There is no reason why it
should not be nice."

"It might have made him so angry!"

"Then he would have been very unreasonable."

"He acknowledges that Mary did not encourage him."

"Of course she did not encourage him. He would have been very unlike a
gentleman had he thought so. But in truth, my dear, it is a very good
letter. Of course there are difficulties."

"Oh;--it is impossible!"

"I do not see that at all. It must rest very much with him, no
doubt;--with Carstairs; and I do not like to think that our girl's
happiness should depend on any young man's constancy. But such dangers
have to be encountered. You and I were engaged for three years before we
were married, and we did not find it so very bad."

"It was very good. Oh, I was so happy at the time."

"Happier than you've been since?"

"Well; I don't know. It was very nice to know that you were my lover."

"Why shouldn't Mary think it very nice to have a lover?"

"But I knew that you would be true."

"Why shouldn't Carstairs be true?"

"Remember he is so young. You were in orders."

"I don't know that I was at all more likely to be true on that account. A
clergyman can jilt a girl just as well as another. It depends on the
nature of the man."

"And you were so good."

"I never came across a