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.
This resolution had not been long formed when that very John Baker tapped at Mr. Hope's door, and brought her a note from Colonel Clifford asking her if she could favor him with a visit in his study.
Grace said, "Yes, Mr. Baker, I will come directly."
As soon as Baker was gone she began to bemoan her weak procrastination, and begged her father's pardon for her presumption in taking the matter out of his hands. "You would not have put it off a day. Now, see what I have done by my cowardice."