After a while Mrs Crawley came in, and there was much pleasant talking among them, while Henry Grantly sat happily with his love, as though waiting for Mr Crawley's return. But though he was there nearly all morning Mr Crawley did not return. 'I think he likes the brickmakers better than anybody in the world, except ourselves,' said Grace. 'Idon't know how he will manage to get on without his friends.' Before Grace has said this, Major Grantly had told all his story, and had produced a letter from his father, addressed to Mr Crawley, of which the reader shall have a copy, although at this time the letter had not been opened. The letter was as follows:-'PLUMSTEAD RECTORY, May, 186-'MY DEAR SIR, 'You will no doubt have heard that Mr Harding, the vicar of St Ewold's, who was the father of my wife and of Mrs Arabin, has been taken from us. The loss to us of so excellent and so dear a man has been very great. I have conferred with my friend the Dean of Barchester as to a new nomination, and Iventure to request your acceptance of the preferment; if it should suit you to move from Hogglestock to St Ewold's. It may be as well that I should state plainly my reasons for making this offer to a gentleman with whom I am not personally acquainted. Mr Harding, on his death-bed, himself suggested it, moved thereto by what he had heard of the cruel and undeserved persecution to which you had been subjected; as also--on which point he was very urgent in what he said--by the character which you bear in the diocese for zeal and piety. I may also add, that the close connection which, as I understand, is likely to take place between your family and mine has been an additional reason for my taking this step, and the long friendship which has existed between you and my wife's brother-in-law, the Dean of Barchester, is a third.
'St Ewold's is worth 350 pounds per annum, besides the house, which is sufficiently commodious for a moderate family. The population is about twelve hundred, of which more than a half consists of persons dwelling in an outskirt of the city--for the parish runs almost into Barchester.
'I shall be glad to hear your reply with as little delay as may suit your convenience, and in the event of your accepting the offer--which I sincerely trust that you may be enable to do--I shall hope to have an early opportunity of seeing you, with reference to your institution to the parish.
'Allow me also to say to you and Mrs Crawley that, if we have been correctly informed as to that other event to which I have alluded, we both hope that we may have an early opportunity of making ourselves personally acquainted with the parents of a young lady who is to be so dear to us. As Ihave met your daughter, I may perhaps be allowed to send her my kindest love. If, as my daughter-in-law, she comes up to the impression which she gave me at our first meeting, I, at any rate, shall be satisfied.--I have the honour to be, my dear sir, you most faithful servant, 'THEOPHILUS GRANTLY' This letter the archdeacon had shown to his wife, by whom it had not been very warmly approved. Nothing, Mrs Grantly had said, could be prettier than what the archdeacon had said about Grace. Mrs Crawley, no doubt, would be satisfied with that. But Mr Crawley was such a strange man! 'He will be stranger than I take him to be if he does not accept St Ewold's,' said the archdeacon. 'But in offering it,' said Mrs Grantly, 'you have not a said a word of your own high opinion of his merits.' 'Ihave not a very high opinion of them,' said the archdeacon. 'Your father had, and I have said so. And as I have the most profound respect for your father's opinion in such a matter, I have permitted that to overcome my own hesitation.' This was pretty from the husband to the wife as it regarded her father, who had now gone from them; and, therefore, Mrs Grantly accepted it without further argument. The reader may probably feel assured that the archdeacon had never, during their joint lives, acted in any church matter upon the advice given to him by Mr Harding; and it was probably the case also that the living would have been offered to Mr Crawley, if nothing had been said by Mr Harding on the subject; but it did not become Mrs Grantly even to think of all this. The archdeacon, having made his gracious speech about her father, was not again asked to alter his letter. 'I suppose he will accept it,' said Mrs Grantly. 'I should think that he probably may,' said the archdeacon.
So Grace, knowing what was the purport of the letter, sat with it between her fingers, while her lover sat beside her, full of various plans for the future. This was his first lover's present to her;--and what a present it was! Comfort, and happiness, and a pleasant home for all her family. 'St Ewold's isn't the best house in the world,' said the major, 'because it is old, and what I call piecemeal; but it is very pretty, and certainly nice.' 'That is just the sort of parsonage that Idream about,' said Jane. 'And the garden is pleasant with old trees,' said the major. 'I always dream about old trees,' said Jane, 'only I'm afraid I'm too old myself to be let to climb up them now.' Mrs Crawley said very little, but sat with her eyes full of tears. Was it possible that, at last, before the world had closed upon her, she was to enjoy something again of the comforts which she had known in her early years, and to again surrounded by those decencies of life which of late had been almost banished from her home of poverty!
