Arabica is prepared to cure. And so it was now with the archdeacon. He thought of the strain which would have been put on his conscience had he come up there to sit in London as Bishop of Westminster, and in this frame of mind he walked home to his wife.
During the first few moments of his interview with her all his regrets had come back upon him. Indeed, it would have hardly suited for him then to have preached this new doctrine of rural contentment. The wife of his bosom, whom he so fully trusted—had so fully loved—wished for grapes that hung high upon the wall, and he knew that it was past his power to teach her at the moment to drop her ambition. Any teaching that he might effect in that way must come by degrees. But before many minutes were over he had told her of her fate and of his own decision. "So we had better go back to Plumstead," he said; and she had not dissented.
"I am sorry for poor Griselda's sake," Mrs. Grantly had remarked later in the evening, when they were again together.
"But I thought she was to remain with Lady Lufton."
"Well, so she will, for a little time. There is no one with whom I would so soon trust her out of my own care as with Lady Lufton. She is all that one can desire."
"Exactly; and, as far as Griselda is concerned, I can not say that I think she is to be pitied."
"Not to be pitied, perhaps," said Mrs. Grantly. "But, you see, archdeacon. Lady Lufton, of course, has her own views."
"Her own views?"
"It is hardly any secret that she is very anxious to make a match between Lord Lufton and Griselda. And though that might be a very proper arrangement if it were fixed—"
"Lord Lufton marry Griselda!" said the archdeacon, speaking quick and raising his eyebrows. His mind had as yet been troubled by but few thoughts respecting his child's future establishment. "I had never dreamed of such a thing."
"But other people have done more than dream of it, archdeacon. As regards the match itself, it would, I think, be unobjectionable. Lord Lufton will not be a very rich man, but his property is respectable, and, as far as I can learn, his character is on the whole good. If they like each
