;
must it not?"

"I trust it will; I think it will. But I cannot see my way as yet."

"Papa cannot have done anything wrong."

"No, my dear; he has done nothing wrong. He has made great
mistakes, and it is hard to make people understand that he has not
intentionally spoken untruths. He is ever thinking of other things,
about the school, and his sermons, and he does not remember."

"And about how poor we are, mamma."

"He has much to occupy his mind, and he forgets things which dwell in
the memory with other people. He said that he had got his money from
Mr. Soames, and of course he thought that it was so."

"And where did he get it, mamma?"

"Ah,--I wish I knew. I should have said that I had seen every
shilling that came into the house; but I know nothing of this
cheque,--whence it came."

"But will not papa tell you?"

"He would tell me if he knew. He thinks it came from the dean."

"And are you sure it did not?"

"Yes; quite sure; as sure as I can be of anything. The dean told me
he would give him fifty pounds, and the fifty pounds came. I had them
in my own hands. And he has written to say that it was so."

"But couldn't this be part of the fifty pounds?"

"No, dear, no."

"Then where did papa get it? Perhaps he picked it up and has
forgotten?"

To this Mrs. Crawley made no reply. The idea that the cheque had been
found by her husband,--had been picked up as Jane had said,--had
occurred also to Jane's mother. Mr. Soames was confident that he had
dropped the pocket-book at the parsonage. Mrs. Crawley had always
disliked Mr. Soames, thinking him to be hard, cruel, and vulgar. She
would not have hesitated to believe him guilty of a falsehood, or
even of direct dishonesty, if by so believing she could in her own
mind have found the means of reconciling her husband's possession of
the cheque with absolute truth on his part. But she could not do so.
Even though Soames had, with devilish premeditated malice, slipped
the cheque into her husband's pocket, his having done so would not
account for her husband's having used the cheque when he found it
there. She was driven to make excuses for him which, valid as they
might be with herself, could not be valid with others. He had said
that Mr. Soames had paid the cheque to him. That was clearly a
mistake. He had said that the cheque had been given to him by the
dean. That was clearly another mistake. She knew, or thought she
knew, that he, being such as he was