and verse for everything they had either done or left undone; there
is no better thumbed precedent than that for being a clergyman and a clergyman's
wife. In what respect had they differed from their neighbours? How did their
households differ from those of any other clergyman of the better sort from one
end of England to the other? Why then should it have been upon them, of all
people in the world, that this tower of Siloam should have fallen?
    Surely it was the tower of Siloam that was naught rather than those who
stood under it; it was the system, rather than the people, that was at fault. If
Theobald and his wife had but known more of the world and of the things that are
therein, they would have done little harm to anyone. Selfish they would have
always been, but not more so than may very well be pardoned, and not more than
other people would be. As it was, the case was hopeless; it would be no use
their even entering into their mothers' wombs and being born again. They must
not only be born again but they must be born again each one of them of a new
father and of a new mother and of a different line of ancestry for many
generations before their minds could become supple enough to learn anew. The
only thing to do with them was to humour them, and to make the best of them till
they died - and be thankful when they did so.
    Theobald got my letter as I had expected, and met me at the station nearest
to Battersby. As I walked back with him towards his own house I broke the news
as gently to him as I could. I pretended that the whole thing was in great
measure a mistake, and that though Ernest no doubt had had intentions which he
ought to have resisted, he had not meant going anything like the length which
Miss Maitland supposed. I said we had felt how much appearances were against him
and had not dared to set up this defence before the magistrate though we had no
doubt about its being the true one.
    Theobald acted with a readier and acuter moral sense than I had given him
credit for.
    »I will have nothing more to do with him,« he exclaimed promptly; »I will
never see his face again; do not let him write either to me or to his mother; we
know of no such person. Tell him you have seen me, and that from this day
forward I shall put him out of my mind as though he had never been born. I have
been a good father