him, half embracing him, waiting for an answer; but for a while he gave
none. 'You will tell me that you will do what I have undertaken for you,
Josiah?'

'I think I would rather that they fetched me. I think that I will not
go myself.'

'And have policemen come for you in the parish! Mr Walker has promised
that he will send over his phaeton. He sent me home in it today.'

'I want nobody's phaeton. If I go I will walk. If it were ten times
the distance, and though I had not a shoe left to my feet I would walk.
If I go there at all, of my own accord, I will walk there.'

'But you will go?'

'What do I care for the parish? What matters who sees me now? I cannot
be degraded as worse than I am. Everybody knows it.'

'There is no disgrace without guilt,' said his wife.

'Everybody thinks me guilty. I see it in their eyes. The children know
of it, and I hear whispers in the school. "Mr Crawley has taken some
money." I heard the girl say it myself.'

'What matters what the girl says?'

'And yet you would have me go in a fine carriage to Silverbridge, as
though to a wedding. If I am wanted let them take me as they would
another. I shall be here for them--unless I am dead.'