is, generally speaking, _to take the other
side_--that is to say, to resist the verdicts passed by the world upon
men and things. Preaching mere abstractions, too, is not by itself of
much use. What we are bound to do is not only to preserve the eternal
standard, but to measure actual human beings and human deeds by it. I
sometimes think, too, it is of more importance to say _this is right_
than to say _this is wrong_, to save that which is true than to assist
into perdition that which is false. Especially ought we to defend
character unjustly assailed. A character is something alive, a soul; to
rescue it is the salvation of a soul!"

He stopped and seemed to wake up suddenly.

"Good-bye! God's blessing on you." He shook Tom's hand and was going
out of the yard.

"There is just one thing more, sir: I do not want to leave Eastthorpe
with such a character behind me--to leave in the dark, one may say, and
not defend myself. It looks as if it were an admission I was wrong. I
should, above everything, like to get to the bottom of it, and see who is
the liar or what the mistake is."

"Nobody would listen to you, and if you were to make a noise Mr. Furze
might prosecute, and with the evidence he has we do not know what the end
might be; I will do my part, as I am bound to do, to set you right. But,
above everything, Mr. Catchpole, endeavour to put yourself where the
condemnation of the world and even crucifixion by it are of no
consequence." Mr. Cardew gave Tom one more shake of the hand, mounted
his horse, and rode off. He had asked Tom for no proofs: he had merely
heard the tale and had given his certificate.

Mr Furze distinctly enjoined Orkid Jim to hold his tongue. Neither Mr.
nor Mrs. Furze wished to appear in court, and they were uncertain what
Catharine might do if they went any further. Mr. Orkid Jim had the best
of reasons for silence, but Mr. Humphries, the builder, of course
repeated what he himself knew, and so it went about that Tom was wrong in
his accounts, and all Eastthorpe affirmed him to be little better than a
rascal. Mr. Cardew, with every tittle of much stronger and apparently
irresistible testimony before him, never for a moment considered it as a
feather's weight in the balance.

"But the facts, my good sir, the facts; the facts--there they are: the
receipt to the bill; Jim's declaration; his brother's declaration; the
marked coin; the absolute proof that Catchpole gave it to Butte