Mrs Arabin remained one day in town. Mr Toogood in spite of his asseveration that he would not budge from Barchester till he had seen Mr Crawley through all his troubles, did run up to London as soon as the news reached him that John Eames had returned. He came up and took Mrs Arabin's deposition, which he sent down to Mr Walker. It might still be necessary, Mrs Arabin was told, that she should go into court, and there state on oath that she had given the cheque to Mr Crawley; but Mr Walker was of the opinion that the circumstances would enable the judge to call upon the grand jury not to find a true bill against Mr Crawley, and that the whole affair, as far as Mr Crawley was concerned, would thus be brought to an end. Toogood was still very anxious to place Dan Stringer in the dock, but Mr Walker declared that they would fail if they made the attempt. Dan had been examined before the magistrates at Barchester, and having persisted in his statement that he had heard nothing about Mr Crawley and the cheque. This he said in the teeth of the words which had fallen from him unawares in the presence of Mr Toogood. But they could not punish him for a lie--not even for such a lie as that! He was not upon oath, and they could not make him responsible to the law because he had held his tongue upon a matter as to which it was manifest to them all that he had known the whole history during the entire period of Mr Crawley's persecution. They could only call upon him to account for his possession of the cheque, and this he did by saying that it had been paid to him by Jem Scuttle, who received all moneys appertaining to the hotel stables, and accounted for them once a week. Jem Scuttle had simply told him that he had taken the cheque from Mr Soames, and Jem had since gone to New Zealand. It was quite true that Jem's departure had followed suspiciously close upon the payment of the rent to Mrs Arabin, and that Jem had been in close amity with Dan Stringer up to the moment of his departure. That Dan Stringer had not become honestly possessed of the cheque, everybody knew; but, nevertheless, the magistrates were of the opinion, Mr Walker coinciding with them, that there was no evidence against him sufficient to secure a conviction. The story, however, of Mr Crawley's injuries was so well known in Barchester, and the feeling against the man who had permitted him to be thus injured was so strong, that Dan Stringer did not altogether escape without punishment. Some rough spirits in Barchester called one night at 'The Dragon of Wantly' and begged Mr Dan Stringer would be kind enough to come and take a walk with them that evening; and when it was intimated to them that Dan Stringer had not just then any desire for exercise, they requested to be allowed to go into the back parlour and make an evening with Dan Stringer in that recess. There was a terrible row at 'The Dragon of Wantly' that night, and Dan with difficulty was rescued by the police.
On the following morning he was smuggled out of Barchester by an early train, and has never more been seen in that city. Rumours of him, however, were soon heard, from which it appeared that he had made himself acquainted with the casual ward of more than one workhouse in London. His cousin John left the inn almost immediately--as, indeed, he must have done had there been no question of Mr Soames's cheque--and then there was nothing more heard of the Stringers in Barchester.
Mrs Arabin remained in town one day, and would have remained longer, waiting for her husband, had not a letter from her sister impressed upon her that it might be well that she should be with her father as soon as possible. 'I don't mean to make you think that there is any immediate danger,' Mrs Grantly said, 'and, indeed, we cannot say that he is ill;but it seems that the extremity of old age has come upon him almost suddenly, and that he is as weak as a child. His only delight is with children, especially with Posy, whose gravity in her management of him is wonderful. He has not left his room now for more than a week, and he eats very little. It may be that he will live for years; but I should be deceiving you if I did not let you know that both the archdeacon and Ithink that the time of his departure from us is near at hand.' After reading this letter, Mrs Arabin could not wait in town for her husband, even though he was expected in two days and though she had been told that her presence in Barchester was not immediately required on behalf of Mr Crawley.
But during that one day she kept her promise to John Eames by going to Lily Dale. Mrs Arabin had become very fond of Johnny, and felt that he deserved the prize which he had been so long trying to win. The reader, perhaps, may not agree with Mrs Arabin. The reader, who may have caught a closer insight into Johnny's character than Mrs Arabin had obtained, may, perhaps, think that a young man who could amuse himself with Miss Demolines was unworthy of Lily Dale. If so, I may declare for myself that I and the reader are in accord about John Eames. It is hard to measure worth and worthlessness in such matters, as there is no standard for such measurement. My old friend John as certainly no hero--was very unheroic in many phases of his life; but then, if all the girls are to wait for heroes, I fear that the difficulties in the way of matrimonial arrangements, great as they are at present, will be very seriously enhanced. Johnny was not ecstatic, nor heroic, nor transcendental, nor very beautiful in his manliness; he was not a man to break his heart for love or to have his story written in epic; but he was an affectionate, kindly, honest young man; and I think most girls might have done worse than take him. Whether he was wise to ask assistance in his love-making so often as he had done, that may be another question.
