"You had better say something to her, or otherwise it will be
strange; and even to him I would say a word or two,--a word in
kindness, as you so well know how. It will be easier to him in that
way, than if you were to be altogether silent."

No further conversation took place between them at the time, but
later in the evening she brushed her hand across her son's forehead,
sweeping the long silken hairs into their place, as she was wont to
do when moved by any special feeling of love. "Ludovic," she said,
"no one, I think, has so good a heart as you. I will do exactly as
you would have me about this affair of Mr. Robarts and the money."
And then there was nothing more said about it.

CHAPTER XLV

Palace Blessings

And now, at this period, terrible rumours found their way into
Barchester, and flew about the cathedral towers and round the
cathedral door; aye, and into the canons' houses and the humbler
sitting-rooms of the vicars choral. Whether they made their way from
thence up to the bishop's palace, or whether they descended from
the palace to the close, I will not pretend to say. But they were
shocking, unnatural, and no doubt grievous to all those excellent
ecclesiastical hearts which cluster so thickly in those quarters.
The first of these had reference to the new prebendary, and to the
disgrace which he had brought on the chapter; a disgrace, as some of
them boasted, which Barchester had never known before. This, however,
like most other boasts, was hardly true; for within but a very few
years there had been an execution in the house of a late prebendary,
old Dr. Stanhope; and on that occasion the doctor himself had been
forced to fly away to Italy, starting in the night, lest he also
should fall into the hands of the Philistines, as well as his chairs
and tables. "It is a scandalous shame," said Mrs. Proudie, speaking
not of the old doctor, but of the new offender; "a scandalous shame:
and it would only serve him right if the gown were stripped from his
back."

"I suppose his living will be sequestrated," said a young minor canon
who attended much to the ecclesiastical injunctions of the lady of
the diocese, and was deservedly held in high favour. If Framley were
sequestrated, why should not he, as well as another, undertake the
duty--with such stipend as the bishop might award?

"I am told that he is over head and ears in debt," said the future
Mrs. Tickler, "and chiefly for horses which he has