do the magnificent thing after all? 'But it is a great charge for a girl
when she marries.'

'It is a great charge--a very great charge. It is for you to think
whether you should entrust so great a charge to one so young.'

'I have no fear about that at all.'

'Nor should I have any--as you ask me. We have known Grace well,
thoroughly, and are quite sure that she will do her duty in that state
of life to which it may please God to call her.'

The major was aware when this was said to him that he had not come to
Miss Prettyman for a character of the girl he loved; and yet he was not
angry at receiving it. He was neither angry, nor even indifferent. He
accepted the character most gratefully, though he felt that he was being
led away from his purpose. He consoled himself for this however, by
remembering that the path which Miss Prettyman was now leading him, led
to the magnificent, and to those pleasant castles in the air which he
had been building as he walked into Silverbridge. 'I am quite sure that
she is all that you say,' he replied. 'Indeed I had made up my mind
about that long ago.'

'And what can I do for you, Major Grantly?'

'You think that I ought not to see her?'

'I will ask her, if you please. I have such trust in her judgment that
I should leave her altogether to her own discretion.'