shop was innocent! As the archbishop and his forgery would
be to England, so was Mr. Crawley and the cheque for twenty pounds
to Barchester and its mayor. Nevertheless, the mayor promised his
assistance to Mr. Toogood.

Mr. Toogood, still neglecting his red-nosed friend, went next to the
deanery, hoping that he might again see Mr. Harding. Mr. Harding was,
he was told, too ill to be seen. Mr. Harding, Mrs. Baxter said, could
never be seen now by strangers, nor yet by friends, unless they were
very old friends. "There's been a deal of change since you were
here last, sir. I remember your coming, sir. You were talking to Mr
Harding about the poor clergyman as is to be tried." He did not stop
to tell Mrs. Baxter the whole story of Mr. Crawley's innocence; but
having learned that a message had been received to say that Mrs
Arabin would be home on the next Tuesday,--this being Friday,--he
took his leave of Mrs. Baxter. His next visit was to Mr. Soames, who
lived three miles out in the country.

He found it very difficult to convince Mr. Soames. Mr. Soames was more
staunch in his belief of Mr. Crawley's guilt than any one whom Toogood
had yet encountered. "I never took the cheque out of his house," said
Mr. Soames. "But you have not stated that on oath," said Mr. Toogood.
"No," rejoined the other; "and I never will. I can't swear to it; but
yet I'm sure of it." He acknowledged that he had been driven by a man
named Scuttle, and that Scuttle might have picked up the cheque, if
it had been dropped in the gig. But the cheque had not been dropped
in the gig. The cheque had been dropped in Mr. Crawley's house. "Why
did he say then that I paid it to him?" said Mr. Soames, when Mr
Toogood spoke confidently of Crawley's innocence. "Ah, why indeed?"
answered Toogood. "If he had not been fool enough to do that, we
should have been saved all this trouble. All the same, he did
not steal your money, Mr. Soames; and Jem Scuttle did steal it.
Unfortunately, Jem Scuttle is in New Zealand by this time." "Of
course, it is possible," said Mr. Soames, as he bowed Mr. Toogood out.
Mr. Soames did not like Mr. Toogood.

That evening a gentleman with a red nose asked at the Barchester
station for a second-class ticket for London by the up night-mail
train. He was well-known at the station, and the station-master made
some little inquiry. "All the way to London to-night, Mr. Stringer?"
he said.

"Yes,--all the way," said the red-nosed man, sulki