Both Mrs. Proudie and the bishop had called at
Plumstead since Mrs. Grantly had come back from London, and the
ladies from Plumstead, of course, returned the visit. It was natural
that the Grantlys and Proudies should hate each other. They were
essentially Church people, and their views on all Church matters were
antagonistic. They had been compelled to fight for supremacy in the
diocese, and neither family had so conquered the other as to have
become capable of magnanimity and good-humour. They did hate each
other, and this hatred had, at one time, almost produced an absolute
disseverance of even the courtesies which are so necessary between a
bishop and his clergy. But the bitterness of this rancour had been
overcome, and the ladies of the families had continued on visiting
terms. But now this match was almost more than Mrs. Proudie could
bear. The great disappointment which, as she well knew, the Grantlys
had encountered in that matter of the proposed new bishopric had for
the moment mollified her. She had been able to talk of poor dear
Mrs. Grantly! "She is heartbroken, you know, in this matter, and the
repetition of such misfortunes is hard to bear," she had been heard
to say, with a complacency which had been quite becoming to her.
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