to the cost of which there
arose among them a not unnatural apprehension which amounted at
last almost to dismay. "I don't mind it so much for once," said
Mr. Quiverful, "but if many such meetings are necessary, I for one
can't afford it, and I won't do it. A man with my family can't allow
himself to be money out of pocket in that way." "It is hard," said Mr
Thumble. "She ought to pay it herself, out of her own pocket," said
Mr. Quiverful. He had had many concerns with the palace when Mrs
Proudie was in the full swing of her dominion, and had not as yet
begun to suspect that there might possibly be change.

Mr. Oriel and Mr. Robarts were already sitting with Dr. Tempest when
the other two clergymen were shown into the room. When the first
greetings were over luncheon was announced, and while they were
eating not a word was said about Mr. Crawley. The ladies of the family
were not present, and the five clergymen sat round the table alone.
It would have been difficult to have got together five gentlemen less
likely to act with one mind and one spirit;--and perhaps it was all
the better for Mr. Crawley that it should be so. Dr. Tempest himself
was a man peculiarly capable of exercising the functions of a judge
in such a matter, had he sat alone as a judge; but he was one who
would be almost sure to differ from others who sat as equal assessors
with him. Mr. Oriel was a gentleman at all points; but he was very
shy, very reticent, and altogether uninstructed in the ordinary daily
intercourse of man with man. Any one knowing him might have predicted
of him that he would be sure on such an occasion as this to be found
floundering in a sea of doubts. Mr. Quiverful was the father of a
large family, whose life had been devoted to fighting a cruel world
on behalf of his wife and children. That fight he had fought bravely;
but it had left him no energy for any other business. Mr. Thumble
was a poor creature,--so poor a creature that, in spite of a small
restless ambition to be doing something, he was almost cowed by the
hard lines of Dr. Tempest's brow. The Rev. Mark Robarts was a man
of the world, and a clever fellow, and did not stand in awe of
anybody,--unless it might be, in a very moderate degree, of his
patrons the Luftons, whom he was bound to respect; but his cleverness
was not the cleverness needed by a judge. He was essentially a
partisan, and would be sure to vote against the bishop in such a
matter as this now before h