The Last Chronicle of Barset (34 page)

‘It's old Lady Lufton's doings,' said Mr Robarts, trying to laugh the matter over.

‘I knew that it came from Framley, Mr Robarts, and I know how good you all are there. I have not written to thank Lady Lufton. I thought it better not to write. Your sister will understand why, if no
one else does. But you will tell them from me, I am sure, that it was, as they intended, a comfort to us. Your sister knows too much of us for me to suppose that our great poverty can be secret from her. And, as far as I am concerned, I do not now much care who knows it.'

‘There is no disgrace in not being rich,' said Mr Robarts.

‘No; and the feeling of disgrace which does attach itself to being so poor as we are is deadened by the actual suffering which such poverty brings with it. At least it has become so with me. I am not ashamed to say that I am very grateful for what you all have done for us at Framley. But you must not say anything to him about that.'

‘Of course I will not, Mrs Crawley.'

‘His spirit is higher than mine, I think, and he suffers more from the natural disinclination which we all have to receiving alms. Are you going to speak to him about this affair of the – cheque, Mr Robarts?'

‘I am going to ask him to put his case into some lawyer's hands.'

‘Oh! I wish he would!'

‘And will he not?'

‘It is very kind of you, your coming to ask him, but –'

‘Has he so strong an objection?'

‘He will tell you that he has no money to pay a lawyer.'

‘But, surely, if he were convinced that it was absolutely necessary for the vindication of his innocence, he would submit to charge himself with an expense so necessary, not only for himself, but for his family?'

‘He will say it ought not to be necessary. You know, Mr Robarts, that in some respects he is not like other men. You will not let what I say of him set you against him?'

‘Indeed, no.'

‘It is most kind of you to make the attempt. He will be here directly, and when he comes I will leave you together.'

While she was yet speaking his step was heard along the gravel-path, and he hurried into the room with quick steps. ‘I crave your pardon, Mr Robarts,' he said, ‘that I should keep you waiting.' Now Mr Robarts had not been there ten minutes, and any such asking of pardon was hardly necessary. And, even in his own house, Mr Crawley
affected a mock humility, as though, either through his own debasement, or because of the superior station of the other clergyman, he were not entitled to put himself on an equal footing with his visitor. He would not have shaken hands with Mr Robarts – intending to indicate that he did not presume to do so while the present accusation was hanging over him – had not the action been forced upon him. And then there was something of a protest in his manner, as though remonstrating against a thing that was unbecoming to him. Mr Robarts, without analysing it, understood it all, and knew that behind the humility there was a crushing pride – a pride which, in all probability, would rise up and crush him before he could get himself out of the room again. It was, perhaps, after all, a question whether the man was not served rightly by the extremities to which he was reduced. There was something radically wrong within him, which had put him into antagonism with all the world, and which produced these never-dying grievances. There were many clergymen in the country with incomes as small as that which had fallen to the lot of Mr Crawley, but they managed to get on without displaying their sores as Mr Crawley displayed his. They did not wear their old rusty cloaks with all that ostentatious bitterness of poverty which seemed to belong to that garment when displayed on Mr Crawley's shoulders. Such, for a moment, were Mr Robarts' thoughts, and he almost repented himself of his present mission. But then he thought of Mrs Crawley, and remembering that her sufferings were at any rate undeserved, determined that he would persevere.

Mrs Crawley disappeared almost as soon as her husband appeared, and Mr Robarts found himself standing in front of his friend, who remained fixed to the spot, with his hands folded over each other and his neck slightly bent forward, in token also of humility. ‘I regret,' he said, ‘that your horse should be left there, exposed to the inclemency of the weather; but –'

‘The horse won't mind it a bit,' said Mr Robarts. ‘A parson's horse is like a butcher's, and knows that he mustn't be particular about waiting in the cold.'

‘I never have had one myself,' said Mr Crawley. Now Mr Robarts had had more horses than one before now, and had been thought by
some to have incurred greater expense than was befitting in his stable comforts. The subject, therefore, was a sore one, and he was worried a little. ‘I just wanted to say a few words to you, Crawley,' he said, ‘and if I am not occupying too much of your time –'

‘My time is altogether at your disposal. Will you be seated?'

Then Mr Robarts sat down, and, swinging his hat between his legs, bethought himself how he should begin his work. ‘We had the archdeacon over at Framley the other day,' he said. ‘Of course you know the archdeacon?'

‘I never had the advantage of any acquaintance with Dr Grantly. Of course, I know him well by name, and also personally – that is, by sight.'

‘And by character?'

‘Nay; I can hardly say so much as that. But I am aware that his name stands high with many of his order.'

‘Exactly; that is what I mean. You know that his judgment is thought more of in clerical matters than that of any other clergyman in the county.'

‘By a certain party, Mr Robarts.'

‘Well, yes. They don't think much of him, I suppose, at the palace. But that won't lower him in your estimation.'

‘I by no means wish to derogate from Dr Grantly's high position in his own archdeaconry – to which, as you are aware, I am not attached – nor to criticise his conduct in any respect. It would be unbecoming in me to do so. But I cannot accept it as a point in a clergyman's favour, that he should be opposed to his bishop.'

Now this was too much for Mr Robarts. After all that he had heard of the visit paid by Mr Crawley to the palace – of the venom displayed by Mrs Proudie on that occasion, and of the absolute want of subordination and episcopal authority which Mr Crawley himself was supposed to have shown – Mr Robarts did feel it hard that his friend the archdeacon should be snubbed in this way because his was deficient in reverence for his bishop! ‘I thought, Crawley,' he said, ‘that you yourself were inclined to dispute orders coming to you from the palace. The world at least says as much concerning you.'

‘What the world says of me I have learned to disregard very much, Mr Robarts. But I hope that I shall never disobey the authority of the Church when properly and legally exercised.'

‘I hope with all my heart you never will; nor I either. And the archdeacon, who knows, to the breadth of a hair, what a bishop ought to do and what he ought not, and what he may do and what he may not, will, I should say, be the last man in England to sin in that way.'

‘Very probably. I am far from contradicting you there. Pray understand, Mr Robarts, that I bring no accusation against the archdeacon. Why should I?'

‘I didn't mean to discuss him at all.'

‘Nor did I, Mr Robarts.'

‘I only mentioned his name, because, as I said, he was over with us the other day at Framley, and we were all talking about your affair.'

‘My affair!' said Mr Crawley. And then came a frown upon his brow, and a gleam of fire into his eyes, which effectually banished that look of extreme humility which he had assumed. ‘And may I ask why the archdeacon was discussing – my affair?'

‘Simply from the kindness which he bears to you.'

‘I am grateful for the archdeacon's kindness, as a man is bound to be for any kindness, whether displayed wisely or unwisely. But it seems to me that my affair, as you call it, Mr Robarts, is of that nature that they who wish well to me will better further their wishes by silence than by any discussion.'

‘Then I cannot agree with you.' Mr Crawley shrugged his shoulders, opened his hands a little and then closed them, and bowed his head. He could not have declared more clearly by any words that he differed altogether from Mr Robarts, and that as the subject was one so peculiarly his own he had a right to expect that his opinion should be allowed to prevail against that of any other person. ‘If you come to that, you know, how is anybody's tongue to be stopped?'

‘That vain tongues cannot be stopped, I am well aware. I do not expect that people's tongues should be stopped. I am not saying what men will do, but what good wishes should dictate.'

‘Well, perhaps you'll hear me out for a minute.' Mr Crawley again
bowed his head. ‘Whether we were wise or unwise, we were discussing this affair.'

‘Whether I stole Mr Soames's money?'

‘No; nobody supposed for a moment you had stolen it.'

‘I cannot understand how they should suppose anything else, knowing, as they do, that the magistrates have committed me for the theft. This took place at Framley, you say, and probably in Lord Lufton's presence.'

‘Exactly.'

‘And Lord Lufton was chairman at the sitting of the magistrates at which I was committed. How can it be that he should think otherwise?'

‘I am sure that he has not an idea that you were guilty. Nor yet has Dr Thorne, who was also one of the magistrates. I don't suppose one of them then thought so.'

‘Then their action, to say the least of it, was very strange.'

‘It was all because you had nobody to manage it for you. I thoroughly believe that if you had placed the matter in the hands of a good lawyer, you would never have heard a word more about it. That seems to be the opinion of everybody I speak to on the subject.'

‘Then in this country a man is to be punished or not, according to his ability to fee a lawyer!'

‘I am not talking about punishment.'

‘And presuming an innocent man to have the ability and not the will to do so, he is to be punished, to be ruined root and branch, self and family, character and pocket, simply because, knowing his own innocence, he does not choose to depend on the mercenary skill of a man whose trade he abhors for the establishment of that which should be as clear as the sun at noonday! You say I am innocent, and yet you tell me I am to be condemned as a guilty man, have my gown taken from me, be torn from my wife and children, be disgraced before the eyes of all men, and be made a byword and a thing horrible to be mentioned, because I will not fee an attorney to fee another man to come and lie on my behalf, to browbeat witnesses, to make false appeals, and perhaps shed false tears in defending me. You have come to me asking me to do this, if I understand you, telling me that the archdeacon would so advise me.'

‘That is my object.' Mr Crawley, as he had spoken, had in his vehemence risen from his seat, and Mr Robarts was also standing.

‘Then tell the archdeacon,' said Mr Crawley, ‘that I will have none of his advice. I will have no one there paid by me to obstruct the course of justice or to hoodwink a jury. I have been in courts of law, and know what is the work for which these gentlemen are hired. I will have none of it, and I will thank you to tell the archdeacon so, with my respectful acknowledgments of his consideration and condescension. I say nothing as to my own innocence, or my own guilt. But I do say that if I am dragged before that tribunal, an innocent man, and am falsely declared to be guilty, because I lack money to bribe a lawyer to speak for me, then the laws of this country deserve but little of that reverence which we are accustomed to pay to them. And if I be guilty –'

‘Nobody supposes you to be guilty.'

‘And if I be guilty,' continued Mr Crawley, altogether ignoring the interruption, except by the repetition of his words, and a slight raising of his voice, ‘I will not add to my guilt by hiring anyone to prove a falsehood or to disprove a truth.'

‘I'm sorry that you should say so, Mr Crawley.'

‘I speak according to what light I have, Mr Robarts; and if I have been over-warm with you – and I am conscious that I have been in fault in that direction – I must pray you to remember that I am somewhat hardly tried. My sorrows and troubles are so great that they rise against me and disturb me, and drive me on – whither I would not be driven.'

‘But, my friend, is not that just the reason why you should trust in this matter to someone who can be more calm than yourself?'

‘I cannot trust to anyone – in a matter of conscience. To do as you would have me is to me wrong. Shall I do wrong because I am unhappy?'

‘You should cease to think it wrong when so advised by persons you can trust.'

‘I can trust no one with my own conscience – not even the archdeacon, great as he is.'

‘The archdeacon has meant only well to you.'

‘I will presume so. I will believe so. I do think so. Tell the archdeacon from me that I humbly thank him – that, in a matter of church question, I might probably submit my judgment to his; even though he might have no authority over me, knowing as I do that in such matters his experience has been great. Tell him also, that though I would fain that this unfortunate affair might burden the tongue of none among my neighbours – at least till I shall have stood before the judge to receive the verdict of the jury, and, if needful, his lordship's sentence – still I am convinced that in what he has spoken, as also in what he has done, he has not yielded to the idleness of gossip, but has exercised his judgment with intended kindness.'

‘He has certainly intended to do you a service; and as for its not being talked about, that is out of the question.'

‘And for yourself, Mr Robarts, whom I have ever regarded as a friend since circumstances brought me into your neighbourhood – for you, whose sister I love tenderly in memory of past kindness, though now she is removed so far above my sphere, as to make it unfit that I should call her my friend –'