'But if he did marry her in spite of the threat? And he would if he had
once said so.'

'Is a father's word, then, to go for nothing; and a father who allows
his son eight hundred a year? If he told the girl that he would be
ruined she couldn't hold him to it.'

'My dear, they'd know as well as I do, that you would give way after
three months.'

'But why should I give way? Good heavens--'

'Of course you'd give way, and of course we should have the young woman
here, and of course we should make the best of it.'

The idea of having Grace Crawley as a daughter at the Plumstead Rectory
was too much for the archdeacon, and he resented it by additional
vehemence to the tone of his voice, and a nearer personal approach to
the wife of his bosom. All unaccoutred as he was, he stood in the
doorway between the two rooms, and thence fulminated at his wife his
assurances that he would never allow himself to be immersed in such a
depth of humility as that she had suggested. 'I can tell you this, then,
that if ever she comes here, I shall take care to be away. I will never
receive her here. You can do as you please.'

'That is just what I cannot do. If I could do as I pleased, I would put
a stop to it at once.'

'It seems to me that you want to encourage him. A child about sixteen
years of age!'