WHAT MR. WALKER THOUGHT ABOUT IT.
[Illustration]
It had been suggested to Mr. Robarts, the parson of Framley, that
he should endeavour to induce his old acquaintance, Mr. Crawley, to
employ a lawyer to defend him at his trial, and Mr. Robarts had not
forgotten the commission which he had undertaken. But there were
difficulties in the matter of which he was well aware. In the first
place Mr. Crawley was a man whom it had not at any time been easy
to advise on matters private to himself; and, in the next place,
this was a matter on which it was very hard to speak to the man
implicated, let him be who he would. Mr. Robarts had come round to
the generally accepted idea that Mr. Crawley had obtained possession
of the cheque illegally,--acquitting his friend in his own mind
of theft, simply by supposing that he was wool-gathering when the
cheque came in his way. But in speaking to Mr. Crawley, it would be
necessary,--so he thought,--to pretend a conviction that Mr. Crawley
was as innocent in fact as in intention.
He had almost made up his mind to dash at the subject when he met Mr.
Crawley walking through Framley to Barchester, but he had abstained,
chiefly because Mr. Crawley had been too quick for him, and had got
away. After that he resolved that it would be almost useless for
him to go to work unless he should be provided with a lawyer ready
and willing to undertake the task; and as he was not so provided
at present, he made up his mind that he would go into Silverbridge,
and see Mr. Walker, the attorney there. Mr. Walker always advised
everybody in those parts about everything, and would be sure to
know what would be the proper thing to be done in this case. So
Mr. Robarts got into his gig, and drove himself into Silverbridge,
passing very close to Mr. Crawley's house on his road. He drove at
once to Mr. Walker's office, and on arriving there found that the
attorney was not at that moment within. But Mr. Winthrop was within.
Would Mr. Robarts see Mr. Winthrop? Now, seeing Mr. Winthrop was
a very different thing from seeing Mr. Walker, although the two
gentlemen were partners. But still Mr. Robarts said that he would see
Mr. Winthrop. Perhaps Mr. Walker might return while he was there.
"Is there anything I can do for you, Mr. Robarts?" asked Mr.
Winthrop. Mr. Robarts said that he had wished to see Mr. Walker
about that poor fellow Crawley. "Ah, yes; very sad case! So much
sadder being a clergyman, Mr. Robarts. We are really quite sorry for
him;--we are indeed. We wouldn't have touched the case ourselves
if we could have helped ourselves. We wouldn't indeed. But we are
obliged to take all that business here. At any rate he'll get nothing
but fair usage from us."
"I am sure of that. You don't know whether he has employed any lawyer
as yet to defend him?"
"I can't say. We don't know, you know. I should say he had,--probably
some Barchester attorney. Borleys and Bonstock in Barchester are very
good people,--very good people indeed;--for that sort of business I
mean, Mr. Robarts. I don't suppose they have much county property in
their hands."
Mr. Robarts knew that Mr. Winthrop was a fool, and that he could get
no useful advice from him. So he suggested that he would take his gig
down to the inn, and call back again before long. "You'll find that
Walker knows no more than I do about it," said Mr. Winthrop, "but
of course he'll be glad to see you if he happens to come in." So Mr.
Robarts went to the inn, put up his horse, and then, as he sauntered
back up the street, met Mr. Walker coming out of the private door of
his house.
"I've been at home all the morning," he said, "but I've had a stiff
job of work on hand, and told them to say in the office that I was
not in. Seen Winthrop, have you? I don't suppose he did know that
I was here. The clerks often know more than the partners. About Mr.
Crawley is it? Come into my dining-room, Mr. Robarts, where we shall
be alone. Yes;--it is a bad case; a very bad case. The pity is that
anybody should ever have said anything about it. Lord bless me, if
I'd been Soames I'd have let him have the twenty pounds. Lord Lufton
would never have allowed Soames to lose it."
"But Soames wanted to find out the truth."
"Yes;--that was just it. Soames couldn't bear to think that he should
be left in the dark, and then, when the poor man said that Soames had
paid the cheque to him in the way of business,--it was not odd that
Soames' back should have been up, was it? But, Mr. Robarts, I should
have thought a deal about it before I should have brought such a man
as Mr. Crawley before a bench of magistrates on that charge."
"But between you and me, Mr. Walker, did he steal the money?"
"Well, Mr. Robarts, you know how I'm placed."
"Mr. Crawley is my friend, and of course I want to assist him. I was
under a great obligation to Mr. Crawley once, and I wish to befriend
him, whether he took the money or not. But I could act so much better
if I felt sure one way or the other."
"If you ask me, I think he did take it."
"What!--stole it?"
"I think he knew it was not his own when he took it. You see I don't
think he meant to use it when he took it. He perhaps had some queer
idea that Soames had been hard on him, or his lordship, and that the
money was fairly his due. Then he kept the cheque by him till he was
absolutely badgered out of his life by the butcher up the street
there. That was about the long and the short of it, Mr. Robarts."
"I suppose so. And now what had he better do?"
"Well; if you ask me,-- He is in very bad health, isn't he?"
"No; I should say not. He walked to Barchester and back the other
day."
"Did he? But he's very queer, isn't he?"
"Very odd-mannered indeed."
"And does and says all manner of odd things?"
"I think you'd find the bishop would say so after that interview."
"Well; if it would do any good, you might have the bishop examined."
"Examined for what, Mr. Walker?"
"If you could show, you know, that Crawley has got a bee in his
bonnet; that the mens sana is not there, in short;--I think you might
manage to have the trial postponed."
"But then somebody must take charge of his living."
"You parsons could manage that among you;--you and the dean and the
archdeacon. The archdeacon has always got half-a-dozen curates about
somewhere. And then,--after the assizes, Mr. Crawley might come to
his senses; and I think,--mind it's only an idea,--but I think the
committal might be quashed. It would have been temporary insanity,
and, though mind I don't give my word for it, I think he might go on
and keep his living. I think so, Mr. Robarts."
"That has never occurred to me."
"No;--I daresay not. You see the difficulty is this. He's so
stiff-necked,--will do nothing himself. Well, that will do for one
proof of temporary insanity. The real truth is, Mr. Robarts, he is as
mad as a hatter."
"Upon my word I've often thought so."
"And you wouldn't mind saying so in evidence,--would you? Well, you
see, there is no helping such a man in any other way. He won't even
employ a lawyer to defend him."
"That was what I had come to you about."
"I'm told he won't. Now a man must be mad who won't employ a lawyer
when he wants one. You see, the point we should gain would be
this,--if we tried to get him through as being a little touched in
the upper story,--whatever we could do for him, we could do against
his own will. The more he opposed us the stronger our case would be.
He would swear he was not mad at all, and we should say that that was
the greatest sign of his madness. But when I say we, of course I mean
you. I must not appear in it."
"I wish you could, Mr. Walker."
"Of course I can't; but that won't make any difference."
"I suppose he must have a lawyer?"
"Yes, he must have a lawyer;--or rather his friends must."
"And who should employ him, ostensibly?"
"Ah;--there's the difficulty. His wife wouldn't do it, I suppose? She
couldn't do him a better turn."
"He would never forgive her. And she would never consent to act
against him."
"Could you interfere?"
"If necessary, I will;--but I hardly know him well enough."
"Has he no father or mother, or uncles or aunts? He must have
somebody belonging to him," said Mr. Walker.
Then it occurred to Mr. Robarts that Dean Arabin would be the proper
person to interfere. Dean Arabin and Mr. Crawley had been intimate
friends in early life, and Dean Arabin knew more of him than did any
man, at least in those parts. All this Mr. Robarts explained to Mr.
Walker, and Mr. Walker agreed with him that the services of Dean
Arabin should if possible be obtained. Mr. Robarts would at once
write to Dean Arabin and explain at length all the circumstances of
the case. "The worst of it is, he will hardly be home in time," said
Mr. Walker. "Perhaps he would come a little sooner if you were to
press it?"
"But we could act in his name in his absence, I suppose?--of course
with his authority?"
"I wish he could be here a month before the assizes, Mr. Robarts. It
would be better."
"And in the meantime shall I say anything to Mr. Crawley, myself,
about employing a lawyer?"
"I think I would. If he turns upon you, as like enough he may, and
abuses you, that will help us in one way. If he should consent, and
perhaps he may, that would help us in the other way. I'm told he's
been over and upset the whole coach at the palace."
"I shouldn't think the bishop got much out of him," said the parson.
"I don't like Crawley the less for speaking his mind free to the
bishop," said the attorney, laughing. "And he'll speak it free to you
too, Mr. Robarts."
"He won't break any of my bones. Tell me, Mr. Walker, what lawyer
shall I name to him?"
"You can't have a better man than Mr. Mason, up the street there."
"Winthrop proposed Borleys at Barchester."
"No, no, no. Borleys and Bonstock are capital people to push a fellow
through on a charge of horse-stealing, or to squeeze a man for a
little money; but they are not the people for Mr. Crawley in such a
case as this. Mason is a better man; and then Mason and I know each
other." In saying which Mr. Walker winked.
There was then a discussion between them whether Mr. Robarts should
go at once to Mr. Mason; but it was decided at last that he should
see Mr. Crawley and also write to the dean before he did so. The dean
might wish to employ his own lawyer, and if so the double expense
should be avoided. "Always remember, Mr. Robarts, that when you go
into an attorney's office door, you will have to pay for it, first or
last. In here, you see, the dingy old mahogany, bare as it is, makes
you safe. Or else it's the salt-cellar, which will not allow itself
to be polluted by six-and-eightpenny considerations. But there is the
other kind of tax to be paid. You must go up and see Mrs. Walker, or
you won't have her help in this matter."
Mr. Walker returned to his work, either to some private den within
his house, or to his office, and Mr. Robarts was taken upstairs to
the drawing-room. There he found Mrs. Walker and her daughter, and
Miss Anne Prettyman, who had just looked in, full of the story of
Mr. Crawley's walk to Barchester. Mr. Thumble had seen one of Dr.
Tempest's curates, and had told the whole story--he, Mr. Thumble,
having heard Mrs. Proudie's version of what had occurred, and having,
of course, drawn his own deductions from her premises. And it seemed
that Mr. Crawley had been watched as he passed through the close
out of Barchester. A minor canon had seen him, and had declared
that he was going at the rate of a hunt, swinging his arms on high
and speaking very loud, though,--as the minor canon said with
regret,--the words were hardly audible. But there had been no doubt
as to the man. Mr. Crawley's old hat, and short rusty cloak, and
dirty boots, had been duly observed and chronicled by the minor
canon; and Mr. Thumble had been enabled to put together a not
altogether false picture of what had occurred. As soon as the
greetings between Mr. Robarts and the ladies had been made, Miss
Anne Prettyman broke out again, just where she had left off when Mr.
Robarts came in. "They say that Mrs. Proudie declared that she will
have him sent to Botany Bay!"
"Luckily Mrs. Proudie won't have much to do in the matter," said Miss
Walker, who ranged herself, as to church matters, in ranks altogether
opposed to those commanded by Mrs. Proudie.
"She will have nothing to do with it, my dear," said Mrs. Walker;
"and I daresay Mrs. Proudie was not foolish enough to say anything of
the kind."
"Mamma, she would be fool enough to say anything. Would she not, Mr.
Robarts?"
"You forget, Miss Walker, that Mrs. Proudie is in authority over me."
"So she is, for the matter of that," said the young lady; "but I know
very well what you all think of her, and say of her too, at Framley.
Your friend, Lady Lufton, loves her dearly. I wish I could have been
hidden behind a curtain in the palace, to hear what Mr. Crawley said
to her."
"Mr. Smillie declares," said Miss Anne Prettyman, "that the bishop
has been ill ever since. Mr. Smillie went over to his mother's at
Barchester for Christmas, and took part of the cathedral duty, and
we had Mr. Spooner over here in his place. So Mr. Smillie of course
heard all about it. Only fancy, poor Mr. Crawley walking all the way
from Hogglestock to Barchester and back;--and I am told he hardly had
a shoe to his foot! Is it not a shame, Mr. Robarts?"
"I don't think it was quite so bad as you say, Miss Prettyman; but,
upon the whole, I do think it is a shame. But what can we do?"
"I suppose there are tithes at Hogglestock. Why are they not given up
to the church, as they ought to be?"
"My dear Miss Prettyman, that is a very large subject, and I am
afraid it cannot be settled in time to relieve our poor friend
from his distress." Then Mr. Robarts escaped from the ladies in
Mr. Walker's house, who, as it seemed to him, were touching upon
dangerous ground, and went back to the yard of the George Inn for
his gig,--the George and Vulture it was properly called, and was
the house in which the magistrates had sat when they committed Mr.
Crawley for trial.
"Footed it every inch of the way, blowed if he didn't," the ostler
was saying to a gentleman's groom, whom Mr. Robarts recognized to be
the servant of his friend, Major Grantly; and Mr. Robarts knew that
they also were talking about Mr. Crawley. Everybody in the county was
talking about Mr. Crawley. At home, at Framley, there was no other
subject of discourse. Lady Lufton, the dowager, was full of it, being
firmly convinced that Mr. Crawley was innocent, because the bishop
was supposed to regard him as guilty. There had been a family
conclave held at Framley Court over that basket of provisions which
had been sent for the Christmas cheer of the Hogglestock parsonage,
each of the three ladies, the two Lady Luftons and Mrs. Robarts,
having special views of their own. How the pork had been substituted
for the beef by old Lady Lufton, young Lady Lufton thinking that
after all the beef would be less dangerous, and how a small turkey
had been rashly suggested by Mrs. Robarts, and how certain small
articles had been inserted in the bottom of the basket which Mrs.
Crawley had never shewn to her husband, need not here be told at
length. But Mr. Robarts, as he heard the two grooms talking about
Mr. Crawley, began to feel that Mr. Crawley had achieved at least
celebrity.
The groom touched his hat as Mr. Robarts walked up. "Has the major
returned home yet?" Mr. Robarts asked. The groom said that his master
was still at Plumstead, and that he was to go over to Plumstead to
fetch the major and Miss Edith in a day or two. Then Mr. Robarts got
into his gig, and as he drove out of the yard he heard the words of
the men as they returned to the same subject. "Footed it all the
way," said one. "And yet he's a gen'leman, too," said the other.
Mr. Robarts thought of this as he drove on, intending to call at
Hogglestock on that very day on his way home. It was undoubtedly the
fact that Mr. Crawley was recognized to be a gentleman by all who
knew him, high or low, rich or poor, by those who thought well of
him and by those who thought ill. These grooms, who had been telling
each other that this parson, who was to be tried as a thief, had been
constrained to walk from Hogglestock to Barchester and back, because
he could not afford to travel in any other way, and that his boots
were cracked and his clothes ragged, had still known him to be a
gentleman! Nobody doubted it; not even they who thought he had stolen
the money. Mr. Robarts himself was certain of it, and told himself
that he knew it by evidences which his own education made clear to
him. But how was it that the grooms knew it? For my part I think that
there are no better judges of the article than the grooms.
Thinking still of all which he had heard, Mr. Robarts found himself
at Mr. Crawley's gate at Hogglestock.