第167章

'We know his daughter Grace.' And then Mrs Walker whispered something further, which we may presume to have been in intimation that the gentleman opposite--Major Grantly--was supposed by some people to be very fond of Miss Grace Crawley.

'Quite a child, isn't she?' said Toogood, whose own daughter, now about to be married, was three or four years older than Grace.

'She's beyond being a child, I think. Of course she is young.'

'But I suppose this affair will knock all that on the head,' said the lawyer.

'I do not know how that may be; but they do say he is very much attached to her. The major is a man of family, and of course it would be very disagreeable if Mr Crawley were found guilty.'

'Very disagreeable indeed; but, upon my word, Mrs Walker, I don't know what to say about it.'

'You think it will go against him, Mr Toogood?' Mr Toogood shook his head, and seeing this, Mrs Walker sighed deeply.

'I can only say that I have nothing from the bishop as yet,' said Dr Tempest, after the ladies had left the room. 'Of course, if he thinks well to order it, the inquiry will be made.'

'But how long would it take?' asked Mr Walker.

'Three months, I should think--or perhaps more. Of course Crawley would do all that he could to delay us, and I am not at all sure that we should be in any great hurry ourselves.'

'Who are "we", doctor?' said Mr Walker.

'I cannot make such an inquiry be myself, you know. I suppose the bishop would ask me to select two or three other clergymen to act with me. That's the usual way of doing it. But you may be quite sure of this, Walker; the assizes will be over, and the jury have found their verdict long before we have settled our preliminaries.'

'And what will the be the good of your going on after that?'

'Only this good:--if the unfortunate man be convicted--'

'Which he won't' said Toogood, who thought it expedient to put on a bolder front in talking of the matter to the rural dean, than he had assumed in his whispered conversation with Mrs Walker.

'I hope not, with all my heart,' said the doctor. 'But, perhaps, for the sake of the argument, the supposition may be allowed to pass.'

'Certainly, sir,' said Mr Toogood. 'For the sake of the argument, it may pass.'

'If he be convicted, then, I suppose, there will be an end of the question. He would be sentenced for not less, I should say, than twelve months; and after that--'

'And would be as good a parson of Hogglestock when he came out of prison as when he went in,' said Mr Walker. 'The conviction and judgment in a civil court would not touch his temporality.'

'Certainly not,' said Mr Toogood.

'Of course not,' said the doctor. 'We all know that; and in the event of Mr Crawley coming back to his parish it would be open to the bishop to raise the question as to his fitness for the duties.'

'Why shouldn't he be as fit as anyone else?' said Mr Toogood.

'Simply because he would have been found guilty to be a thief,' said the doctor. 'You must excuse me, Mr Toogood, but it's only for the sake of the argument.'

'I don't see what that has to do with it,' said Mr Toogood. 'He would have undergone his penalty.'

'It is preferable that a man who preaches from a pulpit should not have undergone such a penalty,' said the doctor. 'But, in practice, under such circumstances--which we none of us anticipate, Mr Toogood--the living should no doubt be vacated. Mr Crawley would probably hardly wish to come back. The jury will do their work before we can do ours--will do it on much better base than any we can have; and, when they have done it, the thing ought to be finished. If the jury acquit him, the bishop cannot proceed any further. If he be found guilty, I think that the resignation of the living must follow.'

'It is all spite, then, on the bishop's part?' said the major.

'Not at all,' said the doctor. 'The poor man is weak; that is all. He is driven to persecute because he cannot escape persecution himself. But it may really be a question whether his present proceeding is not right.

If I were a bishop I should wait till the trial was over; that is all.'

From this and from much more that was said during the evening on the same subject, Mr Toogood gradually learned the position which Mr Crawley and the question of Mr Crawley's guilt really held in the county, and he returned to town resolved to go on with the case.

'I'll have a barrister down express, and I'll defend him in his own teeth,' he said to his wife. 'There'll be a scene in court, I daresay, and the man will call upon his own counsel to hold his tongue and shut up his brief; and, as far as I can see, counsel in such a case would have no alternative. But there would come an explanation--how Crawley was too honourable to employ a man whom he could not pay, and there would be a romance, and it would all go down with the jury. One wants sympathy in such a case as that--not evidence.'

'And how much will it cost, Tom?' said Maria, dolefully.

'Only a trifle. We won't think of that yet. There's John Eames is going all the way to Jerusalem, out of his pocket.'

'But Johnny hasn't got twelve children, Tom.'

'One doesn't have a cousin in trouble every day,' said Toogood. 'And then you see there's something very pretty in this case. It's quite a pleasure getting it up.'