Major Grantly perfectly well understood his father's anxiety to carry his point without seeming to allude to the disagreeable subject.

"My father is very clever," he said to himself, "very clever.

But he isn't so clever but one can see how clever he is." On the next day he went into Silverbridge, intending to call on Miss Prettyman.

He had not quite made up his mind what he would say to Miss Prettyman; nor was he called upon to do so, as he never got as far as that lady's house.

While walking up the High Street he saw Mrs.Thorne in her carriage, and, as a matter of course, he stopped to speak to her.