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 at Hogglestock.

There were two Lady Luftons--mother-in-law and daughter-in-law--who at
this time were living together at Framley Hall, Lord Lufton's seat in
the county of Barset, and there were both thoroughly convinced of Mr
Crawley's innocence. The elder lady had lived much among clergymen, and
could hardly, I think, by any means have been brought to believe in the
guilt of any man who had taken upon himself the orders of the Church of
England. She had also known Mr Crawley personally for some years, and
was one of those who could not admit to herself that anyone was vile who
had been near to herself. She believed intensely in the wickedness of
the outside world, of the world which was far away from herself, and of
which she never saw anything; but they who were near to her, and who had
even become dear to her, or who even had been respected by her, were
made, as it were, saints in her imagination. They were brought into the
inner circle, and could hardly be expelled. She was an old woman who
thought all evil of those she did not know, and all good of those whom
she did know; and as she did know Mr Crawley, she was quite sure that he
had not stolen Mr Soames's twenty pounds. She did know Mr Soames also;
and thus there was a mystery for the unravelling of which she was very
anxious. And the young Lady Lufton was equally sure, and perhaps with
better reason for such certainty.

She had, in truth, known more of Mr Crawley personally, than anyone in