第17章

This took place in the morning, but in the evening the affair was again discussed at Framley Hall. Indeed, for some days, there was hardly any other subject held to be worthy of discussion in the county. Mr Robarts, the clergyman of the parish and the brother of the younger Lady Lufton, was dining at the hall with his wife, and the three ladies had together expressed their perfect conviction of the falseness of the accusation.

But when Lord Lufton and Mr Robarts were together after the ladies had left them, there was much less certainty of this expressed. 'By Jove,' said Lord Lufton,' 'I don't know what to think of it. I wish with all my heart that Soames had said nothing about it, and that the cheque had passed without remark.'

'That was impossible. When the banker sent to Soames, he was obliged to take the matter up.'

'Of course he was. But I'm sorry that it was so. For the life of me, Ican't conceive how the cheque got into Crawley's hands.'

'I imagine it had been lying in the house, and that Crawley had come to think that it was his own.'

'But, my dear Mark,' said Lord Lufton, 'excuse me if I say that that's nonsense. What do we do when a poor man has come to think that another man's property is his own? We send him to prison for making the mistake.'

'I hope they won't sent Crawley to prison.'

'I hope so too; but what is a jury to do?'

'You think it will go to a jury, then?'

'I do,' said Lord Lufton. 'I don't see how the magistrates can save themselves from committing him. It is one of those cases in which everyone concerned would wish to drop it if it were only possible. But it is not possible. On the evidence, as one sees it at present, one is bound to say that it is a case for the jury.'

'I believe that he is mad,' said the brother parson.

'He always was, as far as I could learn,' said the lord. 'I never knew him myself. You do, I think?'

'Oh yes, I know him.' and the vicar of Framley became silent and thoughtful as the memory of a certain interview between himself and Mr Crawley came back into his mind. At that time the waters had nearly closed over his head and Mr Crawley had given him some assistance. When the gentlemen had again found the ladies, they kept their own doubts to themselves; for at Framley Hall, as at present tenanted, female voices and female influences predominated over those which came from the other sex.

At Barchester, the cathedral city of the county in which the Crawleys lived, opinion was violently against Mr Crawley. In the city Mrs Proudie, the wife of the bishop, was the leader of opinion in general, and she was very strong in her belief of the man's guilt. She had known much of clergymen all her life, as it behoved a bishop's wife to do, and she had none of that mingled weakness and ignorance which taught so many ladies in Barchester to suppose that an ordained clergyman could not become a thief. She hated old Lady Lufton with all her heart, and old Lady Lufton hated her as warmly. Mrs Proudie would say frequently that Lady Lufton was a conceited old idiot, and Lady Lufton would declare as frequently that Mrs Proudie was a vulgar virago. It was known at the palace in Barchester that kindness had been shown to the Crawleys by the family at Framley Hall, and this alone would have been sufficient to make Mrs Proudie believe that Mr Crawley could be guilty of any crime.

And as Mrs Proudie believed, so did the bishop believe. 'It is a terrible disgrace to the diocese,' said the bishop, shaking his head, and patting his apron as he sat by his study fire.

'Fiddlestick!' said Mrs Proudie.

'But, my dear--a beneficed clergyman.'

'You must get rid of him; that's all. You must be firm whether he be acquitted or convicted.'

'But if he's acquitted, I cannot get rid of him, my dear.'