Our clergyman, Mr.Boyce, told us of it.

Of course we all know that the charge must be altogether unfounded, and mamma says that the truth will be sure to show itself at last.

But that conviction does not cure the evil, and I can well understand that your father should suffer grievously; and I pity your mother quite as much as I do him.
As for Major Grantly, if he be such a man as I took him to be from the little I saw of him, all this would make no difference to him.

I am sure that it ought to make none.
Whether it should not make a difference in you is another question.

I think it should; and I think your answer to him should be that you could not even consider any such proposition while your father was in so great trouble.