The Last Chronicle of Barset (17 page)

‘I don't see it,' said Lord Lufton. ‘I might have a lot of paper money by me, and not know from Adam where I got it.'

‘But you would have to show where you got it, my lord, when inquiry was made,' said Mr Fothergill.

Lord Lufton, who was not particularly fond of Mr Fothergill, and was very unwilling to be instructed by him in any of the duties of a magistrate, turned his back at once upon the duke's agent; but within three minutes afterwards he had submitted to the same instructions from Mr Walker.

Mr Crawley had again seated himself, and during this period of the affair was leaning over the table with his face buried on his arms. Mrs Crawley sat by his side, utterly impotent as to any assistance, just touching him with her hand, and waiting behind her veil till she should be made to understand what was the decision of the magistrates. This was at last communicated to her – and to him – in a whisper by Mr Walker. Mr Crawley must understand that he was committed to take his trial at Barchester, at the next assizes,
⁴
which would be held in April, but that bail would be taken – his own bail in five hundred pounds, and that of two others in two hundred and fifty pounds each. And Mr Walker explained further that he and the bailmen were ready and that the bail-bond was prepared. The bailmen were to be the Rev. Mr Robarts and Major Grantly. In five minutes the bond was signed and Mr Crawley was at liberty to go away, a free man – till the Barchester Assizes should come round in April.

Of all that was going on at this time Mr Crawley knew little or nothing, and Mrs Crawley did not know much. She did say a word of thanks to Mr Robarts, and begged that the same might be said to – the other gentleman. If she had heard the major's name she did not remember it. Then they were led out back into the bedroom, where Mrs Walker was found, anxious to do something, if she only knew
what, to comfort the wretched husband and the wretched wife. But what comfort or consolation could there be within their reach? There was tea made ready for them, and sandwiches cut from the Inn larder. And there was sherry in the Inn decanter. But no such comfort as that was possible for either of them.

They were taken home again in the fly, returning without the escort of Mr Thompson, and as they went some few words were spoken by Mrs Crawley. ‘Josiah,' she said, ‘there will be a way out of this, even yet, if you will only hold up your head and trust.'

‘There is a way out of it,' he said. ‘There is a way. There is but one way.' When he had spoken she said no more, but resolved that her eye should never be off him, no – not for a moment. Then, when she had gotten him once more into that front parlour, she threw her arms round him and kissed him.

*

The tidings of what had been done by the magistrates at their petty sessions.
¹
was communicated the same night to Grace Crawley by Miss Prettyman. Miss Anne Prettyman had heard the news within five minutes of the execution of the bail-bond, and had rushed to her sister with information as to the event. ‘They have found him guilty; they have, indeed. They have convicted him – or whatever it is, because he couldn't say where he got it.' ‘You do not mean that they have sent him to prison?' ‘No – not to prison; not as yet, that is. I don't understand it altogether; but he's to be tried again at the assizes. In the meantime he's to be out on bail. Major Grantly is to be the bail – he and Mr Robarts. That, I think, was very nice of him.' It was undoubtedly the fact that Miss Anne Prettyman had received an accession of pleasurable emotion when she learned that Mr Crawley
had not been sent away scathless, but had been condemned, as it were, to a public trial at the assizes. And yet she would have done anything in her power to save Grace Crawley, or even to save her father. And it must be explained that Miss Anne Prettyman was supposed to be specially efficient in teaching Roman history to her pupils, although she was so manifestly ignorant of the course of law in the country in which she lived. ‘Committed him,' said Miss Prettyman, correcting her sister with scorn. ‘They have not convicted him. Had they convicted him, there could be no question of bail.' ‘I don't know how all that is, Annabella, but at any rate Major Grantly is to be the bailsman, and there is to be another trial at Barchester.' ‘There cannot be more than one trial in a criminal case,' said Miss Prettyman, ‘unless the jury should disagree, or something of that kind. I suppose he has been committed, and that the trial will take place at the assizes.' ‘Exactly – that's just it.' Had Lord Lufton appeared as lictor, and had Thompson carried the fasces,
²
Miss Anne would have known more about it.

The sad tidings were not told to Grace till the evening. Mrs Crawley, when the inquiry was over before the magistrates, would fain have had herself driven to the Miss Prettymans' school, that she might see her daughter; but she felt that to be impossible while her husband was in her charge. The father would of course have gone to his child, had the visit been suggested to him; but that would have caused another terrible scene; and the mother, considering it all in her mind, thought it better to abstain. Miss Prettyman did her best to make poor Grace think that the affair had so far gone favourably – did her best, that is, without saying anything which her conscience told her to be false. ‘It is to be settled at the assizes in April,' she said.

‘And in the meantime what will become of papa?'

‘Your papa will be at home, just as usual. He must have someone to advise him. I daresay it would have been all over now if he would have employed an attorney.'

‘But it seems so hard that an attorney should be wanted.'

‘My dear Grace, things in this world are hard.'

‘But they are always harder for papa and mamma than for anybody else.' In answer to this, Miss Prettyman made some remarks intended
to be wise and kind at the same time. Grace, whose eyes were laden with tears, made no immediate reply to this, but reverted to her former statement, that she must go home. ‘I cannot remain, Miss Prettyman; I am so unhappy.'

‘Will you be more happy at home?'

‘I can bear it better there.'

The poor girl soon learned from the intended consolations of those around her, from the ill-considered kindnesses of the pupils, and from words which fell from the servants, that her father had in fact been judged to be guilty, as far as judgment had as yet gone. ‘They do say, miss, it's only because he hadn't a lawyer,' said the housekeeper. And if men so kind as Lord Lufton and Mr Walker had made him out to be guilty, what could be expected from a stern judge down from London, who would know nothing about her poor father and his peculiarities, and from twelve jurymen who would be shopkeepers out of Barchester? It would kill her father, and then it would kill her mother; and after that it would kill her also. And there was no money in the house at home. She knew it well. She had been paid three pounds a month for her services at the school, and the money for the last two months had been sent to her mother. Yet, badly as she wanted anything that she might be able to earn, she knew that she could not go on teaching. It had come to be acknowledged by both the Miss Prettymans that any teaching on her part for the present was impossible. She would go home and perish with the rest of them. There was no room left for hope to her, or to any of her family. They had accused her father of being a common thief – her father whom she knew to be so nobly honest, her father whom she believed to be among the most devoted of God's servants. He was accused of a paltry theft, and the magistrates and lawyers and policemen among them had decided that the accusation was true! How could she look the girls in the face after that, or attempt to hold her own among the teachers!

On the next morning there came a letter from Miss Lily Dale, and with that in her hand she again went to Miss Prettyman. She must go home, she said. She must at any rate see her mother. Could Miss Prettyman be kind enough to send her home. ‘I haven't sixpence to pay for anything,' she said, bursting into tears; ‘and I haven't a right
to ask for it.' Then the statements which Miss Prettyman made in her eagerness to cover this latter misfortune were decidedly false. There was so much money owing to Grace, she said; money for this, money for that, money for anything or nothing! Ten pounds would hardly clear the account. ‘Nobody owes me anything; but if you'll lend me five shillings!' said Grace, in her agony. Miss Prettyman, as she made her way through this difficulty, thought of Major Grantly and his love. It would have been of no use, she knew. Had she brought them together on that Monday, Grace would have said nothing to him. Indeed such a meeting at such a time would have been improper. But, regarding Major Grantly, as she did, in the light of a millionaire – for the wealth of the Archdeacon was notorious – she could not but think it a pity that poor Grace should be begging for five shillings. ‘You need not at any rate trouble yourself about money, Grace,' said Miss Prettyman. ‘What is a pound or two more or less between you and me? It is almost unkind of you to think about it. Is that letter in your hand anything for me to see, my dear?' Then Grace explained that she did not wish to show Miss Dale's letter, but that Miss Dale had asked her to go to Allington. ‘And you will go,' said Miss Prettyman. ‘It will be the best thing for you, and the best thing for your mother.'

It was at last decided that Grace should go to her friend at Allington, and to Allington she went. She returned home for a day or two, and was persuaded by her mother to accept the invitation that had been given her. At Hogglestock, while she was there, new troubles came up, of which something shall shortly be told; but they were troubles in which Grace could give no assistance to her mother, and which, indeed, though they were in truth troubles, as will be seen, were so far beneficent that they stirred her father up to a certain action which was in itself salutary. ‘I think it will be better that you should be away, dearest,' said the mother, who now, for the first time, heard plainly all that poor Grace had to tell about Major Grantly – Grace having, heretofore, barely spoken, in most ambiguous words, of Major Grantly as a gentleman whom she had met at Framley, and whom she had described as being ‘very nice.'

In old days, long ago, Lucy Robarts, the present Lady Lufton, sister
of the Rev. Mark Robarts, the parson of Framley, had sojourned for a while under Mr Crawley's roof at Hogglestock. Peculiar circumstances, which need not, perhaps, be told here, had given occasion for this visit. She had then resolved – for her future destiny had been known to her before she left Mrs Crawley's house – that she would in coming days do much to befriend the family of her friend; but the doing of much had been very difficult. And the doing of anything had come to be very difficult through a certain indiscretion on Lord Lufton's part. Lord Lufton had offered assistance, pecuniary assistance, to Mr Crawley, which Mr Crawley had rejected with outspoken anger. What was Lord Lufton to him that his lordship should dare to come to him with his paltry money in his hand? But after a while, Lady Lufton, exercising some cunning in the operations of her friendship, had persuaded her sister-in-law at the Framley parsonage to have Grace Crawley over there as a visitor – and there she had been during the summer holidays previous to the commencement of our story. And there, at Framley, she had become acquainted with Major Grantly, who was staying with Lord Lufton at Framley Court. She had then said something to her mother about Major Grantly, something ambiguous, something about his being ‘very nice,' and the mother had thought how great was the pity that her daughter, who was ‘nice' too in her estimation, should have so few of those adjuncts to assist her which come from full pockets. She had thought no more about it then; but now she felt herself constrained to think more. ‘I don't quite understand why he should have come to Miss Prettyman on Monday,' said Grace, ‘because he hardly knows her at all.'

‘I suppose it was on business,' said Mrs Crawley.

‘No, mamma, it was not on business.'

‘How can you tell, dear?'

‘Because Miss Prettyman said it was – it was – to ask after me. Oh, mamma, I must tell you. I know he did like me.'

‘Did he ever say so to you, dearest?'

‘Yes, mamma.'

‘And what did you tell him?'

‘I told him nothing, mamma.'

‘And did he ask to see you on Monday?'

‘No, mamma; I don't think he did. I think he understood it all too well, for I could not have spoken to him then.'

Mrs Crawley pursued the cross-examination no further, but made up her mind that it would be better that her girl should be away from her wretched home during this period of her life. If it were written in the book of fate that one of her children should be exempted from the series of misfortunes which seemed to fall, one after another, almost as a matter of course, upon her husband, upon her, and upon her family; if so great good fortune were in store for her Grace as such a marriage as this which seemed to be so nearly offered to her, it might probably be well that Grace should be as little at home as possible. Mrs Crawley had heard nothing but good of Major Grantly; but she knew that the Grantlys were proud rich people – who lived with their heads high up in the county – and it could hardly be that a son of the archdeacon would like to take his bride direct from Hogglestock parsonage.

It was settled that Grace should go to Allington as soon as a letter could be received from Miss Dale in return to Grace's note, and on the third morning after her arrival at home she started. None but they who have themselves been poor gentry – gentry so poor as not to know how to raise a shilling – can understand the peculiar bitterness of the trials which such poverty produces. The poverty of the normal poor does not approach it; or, rather, the pangs arising from such poverty are altogether of a different sort. To be hungry and have no food, to be cold and have no fuel, to be threatened with distraint for one's few chairs and tables, and with the loss of the roof over one's head – all these miseries, which, if they do not positively reach, are so frequently near to reaching the normal poor, are, no doubt, the severest of the trials to which humanity is subjected. They threaten life – or, if not life, then liberty – by reducing the abject one to a choice between captivity and starvation. By hook or crook, the poor gentleman or poor lady – let the one or the other be ever so poor – does not often come to the last extremity of the workhouse. There are such cases, but they are exceptional. Mrs Crawley, through all her sufferings, had never yet found her cupboard to be absolutely bare, or the bread-pan to be actually empty. But there are pangs to
which, at the time, starvation itself would seem to be preferable. The angry eyes of unpaid tradesmen, savage with an anger which one knows to be justifiable; the taunt of the poor servant who wants her wages; the gradual relinquishment of habits which the soft nurture of earlier, kinder years had made second nature; the wan cheeks of the wife whose malady demands wine; the rags of the husband whose outward occupations demand decency; the neglected children, who are learning not to be the children of gentlefolk; and, worse than all, the alms and doles of half-generous friends, the waning pride, the pride that will not wane, the growing doubt whether it be not better to bow the head, and acknowledge to all the world that nothing of the pride of station is left – that the hand is open to receive and ready to touch the cap, that the fall from the upper to the lower level has been accomplished – these are the pangs of poverty which drive the Crawleys of the world to the frequent entertaining of that idea of the bare bodkin. It was settled that Grace should go to Allington – but how about her clothes? And then, whence was to come the price of her journey?