On the Sunday evening, when he was tired with his work, she thought it
best to say nothing to him about the magistrates and the business of
Thursday. But on Monday morning she commenced her task, feeling that she
owed it to Mr Walker to lose no more time. He was very decided in his
manners and made her to understand that he would employ no lawyer on his
own behalf. 'Why should I want a lawyer? I have done nothing wrong,' he
said. Then she tried to make him understand that many who may have done
nothing wrong require a lawyer's aid. 'And who is to pay him?' he asked.
To this she replied, unfortunately, that there would be no need of
thinking of that at once. 'And I am to get further into debt!' he said.
'I am to put myself right before the world by incurring debts which I
know I can never pay? When it has been a question of food for the
children I have been weak, but I will not be weak in such a matter as
this. I will have no lawyer.' She did not regard this denial on his part
as very material, though she would fain have followed Mr Walker's advice
had she been able; but when, later in the day, he declared that the
police should fetch him, then her spirits gave way. Early in the morning
he had seemed to assent to the expedient of going into Silverbridge on
the Thursday, and it was not till after he had worked himself into a
rage about the proposed attorney, that he utterly refused to make the
journey. During the whole day, however, his state was such as almost to
break his wife' heart. He would do nothing. He would not go to the
school, nor even stir beyond the house-door. He would not open a book.
He would not eat, nor would he even sit at table or say the accustomed
grace when the scanty midday meal was placed upon the table. 'Nothing is
blessed to me,' he said, when his wife pressed him to say the word for
their child's sake. 'Shall I say that I thank God when my heart is
thankless? Shall I serve my child by a lie?' Then for hours he sat in
the same position, in the old arm-chair, hanging over the fire
speechless, sleepless, thinking ever, as she well knew, of the injustice