"That we ought to stretch a point in his favour," said Toogood.

"But why?" asked the attorney from Silverbridge. "What do we mean
when we say that one man isn't to be trusted as another? We simply
imply that he is not what we call responsible."

"And I don't think Mr. Crawley is responsible," said Johnny.

"Then how can he be fit to have charge of a parish?" said Mr. Walker.
"You see where the difficulty is. How it embarrasses one all round.
The amount of evidence as to the cheque is, I think, sufficient to
get a verdict in an ordinary case, and the Crown has no alternative
but so to treat it. Then his friends come forward,--and from sympathy
with his sufferings, I desire to be ranked among the number,--and
say, 'Ah, but you should spare this man, because he is not
responsible.' Were he one who filled no position requiring special
responsibility, that might be very well. His friends might undertake
to look after him, and the prosecution might perhaps be smothered.
But Mr. Crawley holds a living, and if he escape he will be
triumphant,--especially triumphant over the bishop. Now, if he has
really taken this money, and if his only excuse be that he did not
know when he took it whether he was stealing or whether he was
not,--for the sake of justice that ought not to be allowed." So spoke
Mr. Walker.

"You think he certainly did steal the money?" said Johnny.

"You have heard the evidence, no doubt?" said Mr. Walker.

"I don't feel quite sure about it, yet," said Mr. Toogood.

"Quite sure of what?" said Mr. Walker.

"That the cheque was dropped in his house."

"It was at any rate traced to his hands."

"I have no doubt about that," said Toogood.

"And he can't account for it," said Walker.

"A man isn't bound to show where he got his money," said Johnny.
"Suppose that sovereign is marked," and Johnny produced a coin from
his pocket, "and I don't know but what it is; and suppose it proved
to have belonged to some one who lost it, and then to be traced to my
hands,--how am I to say where I got it? If I were asked, I should
simply decline to answer."

"But a cheque is not a sovereign, Mr. Eames," said Walker. "It is
presumed that a man can account for the possession of a cheque. It
may be that a man should have a cheque in his possession and not be
able to account for it, and should yet be open to no grave suspicion.
In such a case a jury has to judge. Here is the fact: that Mr. Crawley
has the cheque, and b