angry had he now been called Joe by the dean,
and would have bitten his tongue out before he would have called the
dean Frank. His better nature, however, now prevailed, and he began
his letter, and completed it as follows:--

MY DEAR ARABIN,

Circumstances, of which you have probably heard something,
compel me to write to you, as I fear, at some length. I am
sorry that the trouble of such a letter should be forced
upon you during your holidays;--[Mr. Crawley, as he wrote
this, did not forget to remind himself that he never had
any holidays] but I think you will admit, if you will bear
with me to the end, that I have no alternative.

I have been accused of stealing a cheque for twenty
pounds, which cheque was drawn by my Lord Lufton on his
London bankers, and was lost out of his pocket by Mr
Soames, his lordship's agent, and was so lost, as Mr
Soames states,--not with an absolute assertion,--during a
visit which he made to my parsonage here at Hogglestock.
Of the fact that I paid the cheque to a tradesman in
Silverbridge there is no doubt. When questioned about it,
I first gave an answer which was so manifestly incorrect
that it has seemed odd to me that I should not have had
credit for a mistake from those who must have seen that
detection was so evident. The blunder was undoubtedly
stupid, and it now bears heavy on me. I then, as I have
learned, made another error,--of which I am aware that you
have been informed. I said that the cheque had come from
you, and in saying so, I thought that it had formed a
portion of that alms which your open-handed benevolence
bestowed upon me when I attended on you, not long before
your departure, in your library. I have striven to
remember the facts. It may be,--nay, it probably is the
case,--that such struggles to catch some accurate glimpse
of bygone things do not trouble you. Your mind is, no
doubt, clearer and stronger than mine, having been kept
to its proper tune by greater and fitter work. With me,
memory is all but gone, and the power of thinking is on
the wane! I struggled to remember, and I thought that
the cheque had been in the envelope which you handed to
me,--and I said so. I have since learned, from tidings
received, as I am told, direct from yourself, that I was
as wrong in the second statement as I had been in the
first. The double blunder ha