Hope wished to make the revelation, and spare his daughter that pain. She
assented readily and thankfully.
This was a woman's first impulse--to put a man forward.
But by-and-by she had one of her fits of hard thinking, and saw that
such a revelation ought not to be made by one straightforward man to
another, but with all a woman's soothing ways. Besides, she had already
discovered that the Colonel had a great esteem and growing affection for
her; and, in short, she felt that if the blow could be softened by
anybody, it was by her.
Her father objected that she would encounter a terrible trial, from
which he could save her; but she entreated him, and he yielded to her
entreaty, though against his judgment.
When this was settled, nothing remained but to execute it.
Then the woman came uppermost, and Grace procrastinated for one
insufficient reason and another.
However, at last she resolved that the very next day she would ask John
Baker to get her a private interview with Colonel Clifford in his study.
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