I have no money to pay a lawyer."

"But, Josiah, in such a case as this, where your honour, and our very
life depend upon it--"

"Depend on what?"

"On your acquittal."

"I shall not be acquitted. It is well to look it in the face at once.
Lawyer or no lawyer, they will say that I took the money. Were I upon
the jury, trying the case myself, knowing all that I know now,"--and
as he said this he struck forth with his hands into the air,--"I
think that I should say so myself. A lawyer will do no good. It is
here. It is here." And again he put his hands up to his head.

So far she had been successful. At this moment it had in truth been
her object to induce him to speak of his own memory, and not of the
aid that a lawyer might give. The proposition of the lawyer had been
brought in to introduce the subject.

"But, Josiah--"

"Well?"

It was very hard for her to speak. She could not bear to torment him
by any allusion to his own deficiencies. She could not endure to make
him think that she suspected him of any frailty either in intellect
or thought. Wifelike, she desired to worship him, and that he should
know that she worshipped him. But if a word might save him! "Josiah,
where did it come from?"

"Yes," said he; "yes; that is the question. Where did it come
from?"--and he turned sharp upon her, looking at her with all the
power of his eyes. "It is because I cannot tell you where it came
from that I ought to be,--either in Bedlam, as a madman, or in the
county gaol as a thief." The words were so dreadful to her that she
could not utter at the moment another syllable. "How is a man--to
think himself--fit--for a man's work, when he cannot answer his wife
such a plain question as that?" Then he paused again. "They should
take me to Bedlam at once,--at once,--at once. That would not
disgrace the children as the gaol will do."

Mrs. Crawley could ask no further questions on that evening.

CHAPTER XX

What Mr. Walker Thought About It

[Illustration]

It had been suggested to Mr. Robarts, the parson of Framley, that
he should endeavour to induce his old acquaintance, Mr. Crawley, to
employ a lawyer to defend him at his trial, and Mr. Robarts had not
forgotten the commission which he had undertaken. But there were
difficulties in the matter of which he was well aware. In the first
place Mr. Crawley was a man whom it had not at any time been easy
to advise on matters private to himself; and, in the next