'Or in the Consistorial Court. It's all the same thing.'
'There must be an inquiry first--by his brother clergy. There must indeed. It's the only way of proceeding.'
'But there has been an inquiry, and he has been committed.'
'That doesn't signify, my dear. That's the Civil Law.'
'And if the Civil Law condemns him, and locks him up in prison--as it most certainly will do?'
'But it hasn't done so yet, my dear. I really think that as it has gone so far, it will be best to leave it as it is till he has taken his trial.'
'What! Leave him there after what has occurred this morning in this palace?' The palace with Mrs Proudie was always a palace, and never a house. 'No; no; ten thousand times no. Are you not aware that he insulted you, and grossly, most grossly insulted me? Since I first came to this palace;--never, never. And we know the man to be a thief;--we absolutely know it. Think, my lord, of the souls of his people!'
'Oh, dear; oh, dear; oh, dear,' said the bishop.
'Why do you fret yourself in that way?'
'Because you will get me into trouble. I tell you the only thing to be done is to issue a commission with the rural dean at the head of it.'
'Then issue a commission.'
'And they will take three months.'
'Why should they take three months? Why should they take more than three days--or three hours? It is all plain sailing.'
'More shame for them who make it so.'
'But it is so. If I were to take legal proceedings against him, it would cost--oh dear--more than a thousand pounds, I should say.'
'If it costs two, you must do it,' Mrs Proudie's anger was still very hot, or she would not have spoken of an unremunerative outlay of money in such language as that.
In this manner she did not come to understand, before the arrival of Mr Chadwick, that her husband could take no legal steps towards silencing Mr Crawley until a commission of clergymen had been appointed to inquire into the matter, and that the commission should be headed by the rural dean within the limits of whose rural deanery the parish of Hogglestock was situated, or by some beneficed parochial clergyman of repute in the neighbourhood. Now the rural dean was Dr Tempest of Silverbridge --who had held that position before the coming of Dr Proudie to the diocese;and there had grown up in the bosom of Mrs Proudie a strong feeling that undue mercy had been shown to Mr Crawley by the magistrates of Silverbridge, of whom Dr Tempest had been one. 'These magistrates had taken bail for his appearance at the assizes, instead of committing him to prison at once--as they were bound to do, when such an offence as that had been committed by a clergyman. But, no;--even though there was a clergymen among them, they had thought nothing of the souls of the poor people!' In such language, Mrs Proudie had spoken of the affair at Silverbridge, and having once committed herself to such an opinion, of course she thought that Dr Tempest would go through fire and water and would omit no stretch of what little judicial power might be committed to his hands--with the view of opposing his bishop, and maintaining the culprit in is position. 'In such a case as this, can not you name an acting rural dean yourself? Dr Tempest, you know, is very old.' 'No, my dear; no; I cannot.' 'You can ask Mr Chadwick, at any rate, and then you could name Mr Thumble.' 'But Mr Thumble doesn't even hold a living in the diocese. Oh, dear; oh, dear; oh, dear!' And so the matter rested till Mr Chadwick came.
Mrs Proudie had no doubt intended to have Mr Chadwick all to herself--at any rate so as to encounter him in the first instance. But having been at length convinced that the inquiry by the rural dean was really necessary as a preliminary, and having also slept upon the question of expenditure, she gave direction that the lawyer should be shown into the bishop's study, and she took care to be absent at the moment of his arrival. Of course she did not intend that Mr Chadwick should leave the palace without having heard what she had to say, but she thought that it would be well that he should be made to conceive that though the summons had been written by her, it had really been intended on the part of the bishop. 'Mr Chadwick will be with you at eleven, bishop,' she said, as she got up from the breakfast-table, at which she left his lordship with two of his daughters and with a married son-in-law, a clergyman who was staying in the house. 'Very well, my dear,' said the bishop, with a smile--for he was anxious not to betray any vexation at his wife's interference before his daughters or the Rev Mr Tickler. But he understood it all. Mr Chadwick had been sent for with reference to Mr Crawley, and he was driven--absolutely driven, to propose to his lawyer that this commission of inquiry should be issued.
Punctually at eleven Mr Chadwick came, wearing a very long face as he entered the palace door--for he felt that he would in all probability be now compelled to quarrel with Mrs Proudie. Much he could bear, but there was a limit to his endurance. She had never absolutely sent for him before, though she had often interfered with him. 'I shall have to tell her a bit of my mind,' he said, as he stepped across the Close, habited in his best suit of black, with most exact white cravat, and yet looking not quite like a clergyman--with some touch of the undertaker in his gait. When he found that he was shown into the bishop's room, and that the bishop was there--the bishop only--his mind was relieved. It would have been better that the bishop should have written himself, or that the chaplain should have written in his lordship's name; that, however, was a trifle.
