Mr.
Runce is angry with me because I do not think that Goarly should be
crushed under the heels of all his neighbours. Take care, my Lord.
Didn't we come round that corner rather sharp?"
Then Lord Rufford emphatically declared that such men as Scrobby
and Goarly should be crushed, and the Senator, with an inward sigh
declared that between landlord and tenant, between peer and farmer,
between legislator and rustic, there was, in capacity for logical
inference, no difference whatever. The British heart might be all
right; but the British head was,--ah, hopelessly wooden! It would
be his duty to say so in his lecture, and perhaps some good might
be done to so gracious but so stolid a people, if only they could
be got to listen.
Scrobby had got down a barrister from London, and therefore the
case was allowed to drag itself out through the whole day. Lord
Rufford, as a magistrate, went on to the bench himself, though he
explained that he only took his seat there as a spectator. Sir
George and Mr. Gotobed were also allowed to sit in the high
place,--though the Senator complained even of this. Goarly and
Scrobby were not allowed to be there, and Lord Rufford, in his
opinion, should also have been debarred from such a privilege. A
long time was occupied before even a jury could be sworn, the
barrister earning his money by browbeating the provincial bench and
putting various obstacles in the way of the trial.
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