o it. If you don't do it, your friends should do it for
you. If you don't do it, everybody will say you're mad. There isn't a
single solicitor you could find within a half a mile of you at this
moment who wouldn't give you the same advice,--not a single man,
either, who had got a head on his shoulders worth a turnip."

When Mr. Crawley was told that madness would be laid to his charge if
he did not do as he was bid, his face became very black, and assumed
something of that look of determined obstinacy which it had worn when
he was standing in the presence of the bishop and Mrs. Proudie. "It
may be so," he said. "It may be as you say, Mr. Toogood. But these
neighbours of yours, as to whose collected wisdom you speak with so
much certainty, would hardly recommend me to indulge in a luxury for
which I have no means of paying."

"Who thinks about paying under such circumstances as these?"

"I do, Mr. Toogood."

"The wretchedest costermonger that comes to grief has a barrister in
a wig and gown to give him his chance of escape."

"But I am not a costermonger, Mr. Toogood,--though more wretched
perhaps than any costermonger now in existence. It is my lot to have
to endure the sufferings of poverty, and at the same time not to
be exempt from those feelings of honour to which poverty is seldom
subject. I cannot afford to call in legal assistance for which I
cannot pay,--and I will not do it."

"I'll carry the case through for you. It certainly is not just my
line of business,--but I'll see it carried through for you."

"Out of your own pocket?"

"Never mind; when I say I'll do a thing, I'll do it."

"No, Mr. Toogood; this thing you can not do. But do not suppose I am
the less grateful."

"What is it I can do then? Why do you come to me if you won't take my
advice?"

After this the conversation went on for a considerable time without
touching on any point which need be brought palpably before the
reader's eye. The attorney continued to beg the clergyman to have his
case managed in the usual way, and went so far as to tell him that
he would be ill-treating his wife and family if he continued to be
obstinate. But the clergyman was not shaken from his resolve, and was
at last able to ask Mr. Toogood what he had better do,--how he had
better attempt to defend himself,--on the understanding that no legal
aid was to be employed. When this question was at last asked in such
a way as to demand an answer, Mr. Toogood sat fo