it is not possible. On the evidence, as one sees it at present, one is
bound to say that it is a case for the jury.'

'I believe that he is mad,' said the brother parson.

'He always was, as far as I could learn,' said the lord. 'I never knew
him myself. You do, I think?'

'Oh yes, I know him.' and the vicar of Framley became silent and
thoughtful as the memory of a certain interview between himself and Mr
Crawley came back into his mind. At that time the waters had nearly
closed over his head and Mr Crawley had given him some assistance. When
the gentlemen had again found the ladies, they kept their own doubts to
themselves; for at Framley Hall, as at present tenanted, female voices
and female influences predominated over those which came from the other
sex.

At Barchester, the cathedral city of the county in which the Crawleys
lived, opinion was violently against Mr Crawley. In the city Mrs
Proudie, the wife of the bishop, was the leader of opinion in general,
and she was very strong in her belief of the man's guilt. She had known
much of clergymen all her life, as it behoved a bishop's wife to do, and
she had none of that mingled weakness and ignorance which taught so many
ladies in Barchester to suppose that an ordained clergyman could not
become a thief. She hated old Lady Lufton with all her heart, and old
Lady Lufton hated her as warmly. Mrs Proudie would say frequently that
Lady Lufton was a conceited old idiot, and Lady Lufton would declare as
frequently that Mrs Proudie was a vulgar virago. It was known at the
palace in Barchester that kindness had been shown to the Crawleys by the
family at Framley Hall, and this alone would have been sufficient to