The Last Chronicle of Barset | Page 5

mother's
work-table and her father's Greek, mending linen, and learning to scan
iambics--for Mr Crawley in his early days had been a ripe scholar.
And now there had come upon them all this terribly crushing disaster.
That poor Mr Crawley had gradually got himself into a mess of debt at
Silverbridge, from which he had been quite unable to extricate himself,
was generally known by all the world both of Silverbridge and
Hogglestock. To a great many it was known that Dean Arabin had paid
money for him, very much contrary to his own consent, and that he had
quarrelled, or attempted to quarrel, with the dean in consequence--had
so attempted, although the money had in part passed through his own
hands. There had been one creditor, Fletcher, the butcher at

Silverbridge, who had of late been specially hard upon poor Crawley.
This man, who had not been without good nature in his dealings, had
heard stories of the dean's good-will and such like, and had loudly
expressed his opinion that the perpetual curate of Hogglestock would
show a higher pride in allowing himself to be indebted to a rich brother
clergyman, than in remaining under the thrall of a butcher. And thus a
rumour had grown up. And then the butcher had written repeated letters
to the bishop--to bishop Proudie of Barchester, who had first caused his
chaplain to answer them, and had told Mr Crawley somewhat roundly
what was his opinion of a clergyman who ate meat and did not pay for
it. But nothing that bishop could say or do enabled Mr Crawley to pay
the butcher. It was very grievous to such a man as Mr Crawley to
receive these letters from such a man as Bishop Proudie; but the letters
came, and made festering wounds, but then there was an end of them.
And at last there had come forth from the butcher's shop a threat that if
the money were not paid by a certain date, printed bills would be
posted about the country. All who heard of this in Silverbridge were
very angry with Mr Fletcher, for no one there had ever known a
tradesman to take such a step before; but Fletcher swore that he would
persevere, and defended himself by showing that six or seven months
since, in the spring of the year, Mr Crawley had been paying money in
Silverbridge, but had paid none to him--to him who had been not only
his earliest, but his most enduring creditor. 'He got money from the
dean in March,' said Mr Fletcher to Mr Walker 'and he paid twelve
pounds ten to Green, and seventeen pounds to Grobury the baker.' It
was that seventeen pounds to Grobury, the baker, for flour, which made
the butcher fixedly determined to smite the poor clergyman hip and
thigh. 'And he paid money to Hall and to Mrs Holt, and to a deal more;
but he never came near my shop. If he had even shown himself, I
would not have so much about it.' And then a day before the day named,
Mrs Crawley had come into Silverbridge, and had paid the butcher
twenty pounds in four five-pound notes. So far Fletcher the butcher had
been successful.
Some six weeks after this, inquiry began to be made as to a certain
cheque for twenty pounds drawn by Lord Lufton on his bankers in
London, which cheque had been lost in the early spring by Mr Soames,

Lord Lufton's man of business in Barsetshire, together with a
pocket-book in which it had been folded. This pocket-book Soames had
believed himself to have left it at Mr Crawley's house, and had gone so
far, even at the time of the loss, as to express his absolute conviction
that he had so left it. He was in the habit of paying a rentcharge to Mr
Crawley on behalf of Lord Lufton, amounting to twenty pounds four
shillings, every half-year. Lord Lufton held the large tithes of
Hogglestock, and paid annually a sum of forty pounds eight shillings to
the incumbent. This amount was, as a rule, remitted punctually by Mr
Soames through the post. On the occasion now spoken of, he had had
some reason to visit Hogglestock, and had paid the money personally to
Mr Crawley. Of so much there is no doubt. But he had paid it by a
cheque drawn by himself on his own bankers at Barchester, and that
cheque had been cashed in the ordinary way on the next morning. On
returning to his own house in Barchester he had missed his
pocket-book, and had written to Mr Crawley to make inquiry. There
had been no money in it, beyond the cheque drawn by Lord Lufton for
twenty pounds. Mr Crawley had answered this letter