ne so with as much silence as the nature
of the work admitted. But by the day of the magistrates' meeting at
Silverbridge, the subject had become common through the county, and
men's minds were very much divided.

All Hogglestock believed their parson to be innocent; but then all
Hogglestock believed him to be mad. At Silverbridge the tradesmen
with whom he had dealt, and to whom he had owed, and still owed,
money, all declared him to be innocent. They knew something of the
man personally, and could not believe him to be a thief. All the
ladies in Silverbridge, too, were sure of his innocence. It was to
them impossible that such a man should have stolen twenty pounds.
"My dear," said the eldest Miss Prettyman to poor Grace Crawley, "in
England, where the laws are good, no gentleman is ever made out to
be guilty when he is innocent; and your papa, of course, is innocent.
Therefore you should not trouble yourself." "It will break papa's
heart," Grace had said, and she did trouble herself. But the
gentlemen in Silverbridge were made of sterner stuff, and believed
the man to be guilty, clergyman and gentleman though he was. Mr
Walker, who among the lights in Silverbridge was the leading light,
would not speak a word upon the subject to anybody; and then
everybody, who was anybody, knew that Mr. Walker was convinced of the
man's guilt. Had Mr. Walker believed him to be innocent, his tongue
would have been ready enough. John Walker, who was in the habit of
laughing at his father's good nature, had no doubt upon the subject.
Mr. Winthrop, Mr. Walker's partner, shook his head. People did not
think much of Mr. Winthrop, excepting certain unmarried ladies; for
Mr. Winthrop was a bachelor, and had plenty of money. People did not
think much of Mr. Winthrop; but still on this subject he might know
something, and when he shook his head he manifestly intended to
indicate guilt. And Dr. Tempest, the rector of Silverbridge, did not
hesitate to declare his belief in the guilt of the incumbent of
Hogglestock. No man reverences a clergyman, as a clergyman, so
slightly as a brother clergyman. To Dr. Tempest it appeared to be
neither very strange nor very terrible that Mr. Crawley should have
stolen twenty pounds. "What is a man to do," he said, "when he
sees his children starving? He should not have married on such a
preferment as that." Mr. Crawley had married, however, long before he
got the living of Hogglestock.

There were two Lady