els. And
in doing this he would give a triumph, an unalloyed triumph, to a
man whom he believed to be thoroughly bad. The Vicar had accused the
Marquis of spreading reports which he, the Marquis, did not himself
believe; but the Marquis believed them all. At this moment there was
no evil that he could not have believed of Mr. Fenwick. While sitting
there an idea, almost amounting to a conviction, had come upon
him, that Mr. Fenwick had himself been privy to the murder of old
Trumbull. What would not a parson do who would take delight in
insulting and humiliating the nobleman who owned the parish in which
he lived? To Lord Trowbridge the very fact that the parson of the
parish which he regarded as his own was opposed to him, proved
sufficiently that that parson was,--scum, dregs, riff-raff, a low
radical, and everything that a parson ought not to be. The Vicar had
been wrong there. The Marquis did believe it all religiously.

"What must I do?" said the Marquis.

"As to the chapel itself, my lord, the Vicar, bad as he is, does not
want to move it."

"It must come down," said the Marquis, getting up from his chair.
"It shall come down. Do you think that I would allow it to stand
when it has been erected on his ground,--through my error? Not for a
day!--not for an hour! I'll tell you what, Mr. Boothby,--that man has
known it all through;--has known it as well as you do now; but he has
waited till the building was complete before he would tell me. I see
it all as plain as the nose on your face, Mr. Boothby."

The lawyer was meditating how best he might explain to his
angry client that he had no power whatsoever to pull down the
building,--that if the Vicar and the dissenting minister chose
to agree about it the new building must stand, in spite of the
Marquis,--must stand, unless the churchwardens, patron, or
ecclesiastical authorities generally should force the Vicar to
have it removed,--when a clerk came in and whispered a word to the
attorney. "My lord," said Mr. Boothby, "Lord St. George is here.
Shall he come in?"

The Marquis did not wish to see his son exactly at this minute;
but Lord St. George was, of course, admitted. This meeting at the
lawyer's chambers was altogether fortuitous, and father and son were
equally surprised. But so great was the anger and dismay and general
perturbation of the Marquis at the time, that he could not stop to
ask any question. St. George must, of course, know what had happened,