GRACE CRAWLEY

It has already been said that Grace Crawley was at this time living with
the two Miss Prettymans, who kept a girls' school at Silverbridge. Two
more benignant ladies than the Miss Prettymans never presided over such
an establishment. The younger was fat, and fresh, and fair, and seemed
to be always running over with the milk of human kindness. The other was
very thin and very small, and somewhat afflicted with bad health--was
weak, too, in the eyes, and subject to racking headaches, so that it was
considered generally that she was unable to take much active part in the
education of the pupils. But it was considered as generally that she did
all the thinking, that she knew more than any other woman in
Barsetshire, and that all the Prettyman schemes for education emanated
from her mind. It was said, too, by those who knew them best, that her
sister's good-nature was as nothing to hers; that she was the most
charitable, the most loving, and the most conscientious of
school-mistresses. This was Miss Annabella Prettyman, the elder; and
perhaps it may be inferred that some portion of her great character for
virtue may have been due to the fact that nobody ever saw her out of her
own house. She could not even go to church, because the open air brought
on neuralgia. She was therefore perhaps taken to be magnificent, partly
because she was unknown. Miss Anne Prettyman, the younger, went about
frequently to tea-parties--would go, indeed, to any party to which she
might be invited; and was known to have a pleasant taste for poundcake
and sweetmeats. Being seen so much in the outer world, she became
common, and her character did not stand so high as did that of her
sister. Some people were ill-natured enough to say that she wanted to
marry Mr Winthrop; but of what maiden lady that goes out in the world
are not such stories told? And all such stories in Silverbridge were