erested in the case,--very much interested. Of course I shall
be there." And had not Lord Lufton been present he would have made
himself more conspicuous by taking the chair. Mr. Fothergill was the
fourth. Mr. Fothergill was man of business to the Duke of Omnium, who
was the great owner of property in and about Silverbridge, and he was
the most active magistrate in that part of the county. He was a sharp
man, and not at all likely to have any predisposition in favour of a
clergyman. The fifth was Dr. Thorne, of Chaldicotes, a gentleman whose
name has been already mentioned in these pages. He had been for many
years a medical man practising in a little village in the further
end of the county; but it had come to be his fate, late in life, to
marry a great heiress, with whose money the ancient house and domain
of Chaldicotes had been purchased from the Sowerbys. Since then Dr
Thorne had done his duty well as a country gentleman,--not, however,
without some little want of smoothness between him and the duke's
people.

Chaldicotes lay next to the duke's territory, and the duke had wished
to buy Chaldicotes. When Chaldicotes slipped through the duke's
fingers and went into the hands of Dr. Thorne,--or of Dr. Thorne's
wife,--the duke had been very angry with Mr. Fothergill. Hence it had
come to pass that there had not always been smoothness between the
duke's people and the Chaldicotes people. It was now rumoured that
Dr. Thorne intended to stand for the county on the next vacancy, and
that did not tend to make things smoother. On the right hand of Lord
Lufton sat Lord George and Mr. Fothergill, and beyond Mr. Fothergill
sat Mr. Walker, and beyond Mr. Walker sat Mr. Walker's clerk. On the
left hand of the chairman were Dr. Tempest and Dr. Thorne, and a little
lower down was Mr. Zachary Winthrop, who held the situation of clerk
to the magistrates. Many people in Silverbridge said that this was
all wrong, as Mr. Winthrop was partner with Mr. Walker, who was always
employed before the magistrates if there was any employment going for
an attorney. For this, however, Mr. Walker cared very little. He had
so much of his own way in Silverbridge, that he was supposed to care
nothing for anybody.

There were many other gentlemen in the room, and some who knew Mr
Crawley with more or less intimacy. He, however, took notice of no
one, and when one friend, who had really known him well, came up
behind and spoke to him gently leaning ove