'They have come to see the degradation of a clergyman,' said he;--'and
they will not be disappointed.'

'Nothing can degrade but guilt,' said his wife.

'Yes--misfortune can degrade, and poverty. A man is degraded when the
cares of the world press so heavily upon him that he cannot rouse
himself. They have come to look at me as though I were a hunted beast.'

'It is but their custom always on such days.'

'They have not always had a clergyman before them as a criminal.' Then
he was silent for a while, while she was chafing his cold hands. 'Would
that I were dead, before they brought me to this! Would that I were
dead!'

'Is it not right, dear, that we should bear all that He sends us?'

'Would that I were dead!' he repeated. 'The load is too heavy for me to
bear, and I would that I were dead.'

The time seemed very long before Thompson returned and asked them to
accompany him into the big room. When he did so, Mr Crawley grasped hold
of the chair as though he had resolved that he would not go.

But his wife whispered a word to him, and he obeyed her. 'He will
follow me,' she said to the policeman. And in that way they went from
the smaller room into the large one. Thompson went first; Mrs Crawley
with her veil down came next; and the wretched man followed his wife,
with his eyes fixed upon the ground and his hands clasped together upon