nquiry; but Dr. Tempest had not as yet received from the bishop
any official order on the subject.

"We are so delighted to think that you have taken up your cousin's
case," said Mrs. Walker to Mr. Toogood, almost in a whisper.

"He is not just my cousin, himself," said Mr. Toogood, "but of course
it's all the same thing. And as to taking up his case, you see, my
dear madam, he won't let me take it up."

"I thought you had. I thought you were down here about it."

"Only on the sly, Mrs. Walker. He has such queer ideas that he will
not allow a lawyer to be properly employed; and you can't conceive
how hard that makes it. Do you know him, Mrs. Walker?"

"We know his daughter Grace." And then Mrs. Walker whispered something
further, which we may presume to have been an intimation that the
gentleman opposite,--Major Grantly,--was supposed by some people to
be very fond of Miss Grace Crawley.

"Quite a child, isn't she?" said Toogood, whose own daughter, now
about to be married, was three or four years older than Grace.

"She's beyond being a child, I think. Of course she is young."

"But I suppose this affair will knock all that on the head," said the
lawyer.

"I do not know how that may be; but they do say he is very much
attached to her. The major is a man of family, and of course it would
be very disagreeable if Mr. Crawley were found guilty."

"Very disagreeable, indeed; but, upon my word, Mrs. Walker, I don't
know what to say about it."

"You think it will go against him, Mr. Toogood?" Mr. Toogood shook his
head, and on seeing this, Mrs. Walker sighed deeply.

"I can only say that I have heard nothing from the bishop as yet,"
said Dr. Tempest, after the ladies had left the room. "Of course, if
he thinks well to order it, the inquiry must be made."

"But how long would it take?" asked Mr. Walker.

"Three months, I should think,--or perhaps more. Of course Crawley
would do all he could to delay us, and I am not at all sure that we
should be in any great hurry ourselves."

"Who are the 'we', doctor?" said Mr. Walker.

"I cannot make such an inquiry by myself, you know. I suppose the
bishop would ask me to select two or four other clergymen to act with
me. That's the usual way of doing it. But you may be quite sure of
this, Walker; the assizes will be over, and the jury have found their
verdict long before we have settled our preliminaries."

"And what will the be the good of your going on after that?"