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

'And are you sure that 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 was written to say that it was so.'

'But couldn't it 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 Soames had paid the cheque to him. That
was clearly a mistake. He had said that the cheque had been given to him