four
o'clock."

"No, I did not," said Summerkin. "I deny it."

"Polly," said her cousin, "you should keep him in better order. He
will certainly come to grief if he goes on like this. I suppose you
could do without him for half an hour."

"I don't want him, I can assure you," said Polly.

"I have only been here just five minutes," said Summerkin, "and I
came because Mrs. Toogood asked me to do a commission."

"That's civil to you, Polly," said John.

"It's quite as civil as I wish him to be," said Polly. "And as for
you, John, everybody knows that you're a goose, and that you always
were a goose. Isn't he always doing foolish things at the office,
William?" But as John Eames was rather a great man at the Income-tax
Office, Summerkin would not fall into his sweetheart's joke on this
subject, finding it easier and perhaps safer to twiddle the bodkins
in Polly's work-basket. Then Toogood and Mrs. Toogood entered the
room together, and the lovers were able to be alone again during the
general greetings with which Johnny was welcomed.

"You don't know the Silverbridge people,--do you?" asked Mr. Toogood.
Eames said that he did not. He had been at Silverbridge more than
once, but did not know very much of the Silverbridgians. "Because
Walker is coming to dine here. Walker is the leading man in
Silverbridge."

"And what is Walker;--besides being the leading man in Silverbridge?"

"He's a lawyer. Walker and Winthrop. Everybody knows Walker in
Barsetshire. I've been down at Barchester since I saw you."

"Have you indeed?" said Johnny.

"And I'll tell you what I've been about. You know Mr. Crawley; don't
you?"

"The Hogglestock clergyman that has come to grief? I don't know him
personally. He's a sort of cousin by marriage, you know."

"Of course he is," said Mr. Toogood. "His wife is my first-cousin, and
your mother's first-cousin. He came here to me the other day;--or
rather to the shop. I had never seen the man before in my life, and a
very queer fellow he is too. He came to me about this trouble of his,
and of course I must do what I can for him. I got myself introduced
to Walker, who has the management of the prosecution, and I asked him
to come here and dine to-day."

"And what sort of fellow did you find Crawley, uncle Tom?"

"Such a queer fish;--so unlike anybody else in the world."

"But I suppose he did take the money?" said Johnny.

"I don't know what to say about it. I don't indeed. If he took it