第72章

Who inquires why it is that a little greased flour rubbed in among the hair on a footman's head--just one dab here and another there--gives such a tone of high life to the family? And seeing that the thing is so easily done, why do not more people attempt it? The tax on hair powder is but thirteen shillings a year. It may, indeed, be that the slightest dab in the world justifies the wearer in demanding hot meat three times a day, and wine at any rate on Sundays. I think, however, that a bishop's wife may enjoy the privilege without such heavy attendant expense; otherwise the man who opened the bishop's door to Mr Crawley would hardly have been so ornamental.

The man asked for a card. 'My name is Mr Crawley,' said our friend.

'The bishop desired me to come to him at this hour. Will you be pleased to tell him that I am here.' The man again asked for a card. 'I am not bound to carry with me my name printed on a ticket,' said Mr Crawley.

'If you cannot remember it, give me a pencil and paper, and I will write it.' The servant, somewhat awed by the stranger's manner, brought pen and paper, and Mr Crawley wrote his name:--'THE REV JOSHUA CRAWLEY, M.A., Perpetual Curate of Hogglestock' He was then ushered into a waiting-room, but, to his disappointment, was not kept there waiting long. Within three minutes he was ushered into the bishop's study, and into the presence of the two great luminaries of the diocese. He was at first somewhat disconcerted by finding Mrs Proudie in the room. In the imaginary conversation with the bishop which he had been preparing on the road, he had conceived that the bishop would be attended by a chaplain, and he had suited his words to the joint discomfiture of the bishop and of the lower clergyman;--but now the line of his battle must be altered. This was no doubt an injury, but he trusted to his courage and readiness to enable him to surmount it. He had left his hat behind him in the waiting room, but he kept his old short cloak still upon his shoulders; and when he entered the bishop's room his hands and arms were hid beneath it. There was something lowly in this constrained gait. It showed at least that he had no idea of being asked to shake hands with the august persons he might meet. And his head was somewhat bowed, though his great, bald, broad forehead showed itself so prominent, that neither the bishop nor Mrs Proudie could drop it from their sight during the whole interview. He was a man who when seen could hardly be forgotten. The deep angry remonstrant eyes, the shaggy eyebrows, telling tales of frequent anger--of anger frequent but generally silent--the repressed indignation of the habitual frown, the long nose and large powerful mouth, the deep furrows on the cheek, and the general look of thought and suffering, all combined to make the appearance of the man remarkable, and to describe to the beholders at once his true character. No one ever on seeing Mr Crawley took him to be a happy man, or a weak man, or an ignorant man, or a wise man.

'You are very punctual, Mr Crawley,' said the bishop. Mr Crawley simply bowed his head, still keeping his hands beneath his cloak. 'Will you not take a chair nearer to the fire?' Mr Crawley had not seated himself, but had placed himself in front of a chair at the extreme end of the room--resolved that he would not use it unless he were duly asked.

'Thank you, my lord,' he said. 'I am warm with walking, and if you please, will avoid the fire.'

'You have not walked, Mr Crawley?'

'Yes, my lord; I have been walking.'

'Not from Hogglestock!'

Now this was a matter which Mr Crawley certainly did not mean to discuss with the bishop. It might be well for the bishop to demand his presence in the palace, but it could be no part of the bishop's duty to inquire how he got there. 'That, my lord, is a matter of no moment,' said he. 'Iam glad at any rate that I have been enable to obey your lordship's order in coming hither on this morning.'

Hitherto Mrs Proudie had not said a word. She stood back in the room, near the fire--more backward a good deal than she was accustomed to do when clergymen made their ordinary visits. On such occasions she would come forward and shake hands with them graciously--graciously, even if proudly; but she had felt that she must do nothing of that kind now;there must be no shaking hands with a man who had stolen a cheque for twenty pounds! It might probably be necessary to keep Mr Crawley at a distance, and therefore she had remained in the background. But Mr Crawley seemed disposed to keep himself in the background, and therefore she could speak. 'I hope your wife and children are well, Mr Crawley' she said.

'Thank you, madam, my children are quite well, and Mrs Crawley suffers no special ailment at present.'

'That is much to be thankful for, Mr Crawley.' Whether he were or were not thankful for such mercies as these was no business of the bishop or of the bishop's wife. That was between him and his God. So he would not even bow to this civility, but sat with his head erect, and with a great frown on his heavy brow.

Then the bishop rose from his chair to speak, intending to take up a position on the rug. But as he did so Mr Crawley, who had also seated himself on an intimation that he was expected to sit down, rose also, and the bishop found that he would thus lose his expected vantage. 'Will you not be seated, Mr Crawley?' said the bishop. Mr Crawley smiled, but stood his ground. Then the bishop returned to his arm-chair, and Mr Crawley also sat down again. 'Mr Crawley,' began the bishop, 'this matter which the other day came before the magistrates at Silverbridge has been a most unfortunate affair. It has given me, I can assure you, the most sincere pain.'