第327章

The fortnight following Mr Harding's death was passed very quietly at Hogglestock, for during that time no visitor made an appearance in the parish except Mr Snapper on the Sundays. Mr Snapper, when he had completed the service on the first of these Sundays, intimated to Mr Crawley his opinion that probably that gentleman might himself wish to resume his duties on the following Sabbath. Mr Crawley, however, courteously declined to do anything of the kind. He said that it was quite out of the question that he should do so without a direct communication made to him from the bishop, or by the bishop's order. The assizes had, of course, gone by, and all question of the trial was over.

Nevertheless--as Mr Snapper said--the bishop had not, as yet, given any order. Mr Snapper was of the opinion that the bishop in these days was not quite himself. He had spoken to the bishop about it, and the bishop had told him peevishly--'I must say quite peevishly,' Mr Snapper had said--that nothing was to be done at present. Mr Snapper was not the less clearly of the opinion that Mr Crawley might resume his duties. To this, however, Mr Crawley would not assent.

But even during this fortnight Mr Crawley had not remained altogether neglected. Two days after Mr Harding's death he had received a note from the dean in which he was advised not to resume the duties at Hogglestock for the present. 'Of course you can understand that we have a sad house here for the present,' the dean had said. 'But as soon as ever we are able to move in the matter we will arrange things for you as comfortably as we can. I will see the bishop myself.' Mr Crawley had no ambitious idea of any comfort which might accrue to him beyond that of an honourable return to his humble preferment at Hogglestock; but, nevertheless, he was in this case minded to do as the dean counselled him. He had submitted himself to the bishop, and he would wait till the bishop absolved him from his submission.

On the day after the funeral, the bishop had sent his compliments to the dean with an expression of a wish that the dean would call upon him on any early day that might be convenient with reference to the position of Mr Crawley of Hogglestock. The note was in the bishop's own handwriting and was as mild and civil as a bishop's note could be. Of course the dean named an early day for the interview; but it was necessary before he went to the bishop that he should discuss the matter with the archdeacon. If St Ewold's might be given to Mr Crawley, the Hogglestock difficulties would all be brought to an end. The archdeacon, after the funeral, had returned to Plumstead, and thither the dean went to him before he was the bishop. He did succeed--he and Mrs Grantly between them--but with very great difficulty, in obtaining a conditional promise. They had both thought that when the archdeacon became fully aware that Grace was to be his daughter-in-law, he would at once have been delighted to have an opportunity of extricating from his poverty a clergyman with whom it was his fate to be closely connected. But he fought the matter on twenty different points. He declared at first that as it was his primary duty to give the people of St Ewold's the best clergyman he could select for them he could not give the preference to Mr Crawley, because Mr Crawley, in spite of all his zeal and piety, was a man so quaint in his manners and so eccentric in his mode of speech as not to be the best clergyman whom he could select. 'What is my old friend Thorne to do with a man in the parish who won't drink a glass of wine with him?'. For Ullathorne, the seat of that Mr Wilfred Thorne who had been so guilty in the matter of the foxes, was situated in the parish of St Ewold's. When Mrs Grantly proposed that Mr Thorne's consent should be asked, the archdeacon became very angry. It was his special duty to the best he could for Mr Thorne, but it was specially his duty to do so without consulting Mr Thorne about it. As the archdeacon's objection had been argued simply on the point of a glass of wine, both the dean and Mrs Grantly thought that he was unreasonable. But they had their point to gain, and therefore only flattered him. They were quite sure that Mr Thorne would like to have a clergyman in the parish who would himself be closely connected with the archdeacon. Then Dr Grantly alleged that he might find himself in a trap. What if he conferred the living of St Ewold's on Mr Crawley and after all there should be no marriage between his son and Grace? 'Of course they'll be married,' said Mrs Grantly. 'It's all very well for you to say that, my dear; but the whole family are so queer that there is no knowing what the girl may do.

She may take up some other fad now, and refuse him point blank.' 'She has never taken up any fad,' said Mrs Grantly, who now mounted almost to wrath in defence of her future daughter-in-law, 'and you are wrong to say that she has. She has behaved beautifully: --as nobody knows better than you do.' Then the archdeacon gave way so far as to promise that St Ewold's should be offered to Mr Crawley as soon as Grace Crawley was in truth engaged to Henry Grantly.

After that, the dean went to the palace. There had never been any quarrelling between the bishop and the dean, either direct or indirect;--nor, indeed, had the dean every quarrelled even with Mrs Proudie. But he had belonged the anti-Proudie faction. He had been brought into the diocese by the Grantly interest; and therefore, during Mrs Proudie's lifetime, he had always been accounted among the enemies.