It has already been said that Grace Crawley was at this time living with the two Miss Prettymans, who kept a girls’ school at Silverbridge.  Two more benignant ladies than the Miss Prettymans never presided over such an establishment.  The younger was fat, and fresh, and fair, and seemed to be always running over with the milk of human kindness.  The other was very thin and very small, and somewhat afflicted with bad health—­was weak, too, in the eyes, and subject to racking headaches, so that it was considered generally that she was unable to take much active part in the education of the pupils.  But it was considered as generally that she did all the thinking, that she knew more than any other woman in Barsetshire, and that all the Prettyman schemes for education emanated from her mind.  It was said, too, by those who knew them best, that her sister’s good-nature was as nothing to hers; that she was the most charitable, the most loving, and the most conscientious of school-mistresses.  This was Miss Annabella Prettyman, the elder; and perhaps it may be inferred that some portion of her great character for virtue may have been due to the fact that nobody ever saw her out of her own house.  She could not even go to church, because the open air brought on neuralgia.  She was therefore perhaps taken to be magnificent, partly because she was unknown.  Miss Anne Prettyman, the younger, went about frequently to tea-parties—­would go, indeed, to any party to which she might be invited; and was known to have a pleasant taste for poundcake and sweetmeats.  Being seen so much in the outer world, she became common, and her character did not stand so high as did that of her sister.  Some people were ill-natured enough to say that she wanted to marry Mr Winthrop; but of what maiden lady that goes out in the world are not such stories told?  And all such stories in Silverbridge were told with special reference to Mr Winthrop.

Miss Crawley, at present, lived with the Miss Prettymans, and assisted them in the school.  This arrangement had been going on for the last twelve months, since the time in which Grace would have left the school in the natural course of things.  There had been no bargain made, and no intention that Grace should stay.  She had been invited to fill the place of an absent superintendent, first, for one month, then for another, and then for two more months; and when the assistant came back, the Miss Prettymans thought there were reasons why Grace should be asked to remain a little longer.  But they took great care to let the fashionable world of Silverbridge know that Grace Crawley was a visitor with them, and not a teacher.  ‘We pay her no salary, or anything of that kind,’ said Miss Ann Prettyman; a statement, however, which was by no means true, for during those last four months the regular stipend had been paid to her; and twice since then, Miss Annabella Prettyman, who managed all the money matters, had called Grace into her little room, and had made a