Chapter LVII

Squire Caldigate at the Home Office

When October came no information from the Secretary of State’s office had yet reached Folking, and the two inhabitants there were becoming almost despondent as well as impatient.  There was nobody with whom they could communicate.  Sir John Joram had been obliged to answer a letter from the squire by saying that, as soon as there was anything to tell the tidings would assuredly be communicated to him from the Home Office.  The letter had seemed to be cold and almost uncivil; but Sir John had in truth said all that he could say.  To raise hopes which, after all, might be fallacious, would have been, on his part, a great fault.  Nor, in spite of his bet, was he very sanguine, sharing his friend Honybun’s opinion as to Judge Bramber’s obstinacy.  And there was a correspondence between the elder Caldigate and the Home Office, in which the letters from the squire were long and well argued, whereas the replies, which always came by return of post, were short and altogether formal.  Some assistant under-secretary would sign his name at the end of three lines, in which the correspondent was informed that as soon as the matter was settled the result would be communicated.

Who does not know the sense of aggravated injustice which comes upon a sufferer when redress for an acknowledged evil is delayed?  The wronged one feels that the whole world must be out of joint in that all the world does not rise up in indignation.  So it was with the old squire, who watched Hester’s cheek becoming paler day by day, and who knew by her silence that the strong hopes which in his presence had been almost convictions were gradually giving way to a new despair.  Then he would abuse the Secretary of State, say hard things of the Queen, express his scorn as to the fatuous absurdities of the English law, and would make her understand by his anger that he also was losing hope.

During these days preparations were being made for the committal of Crinkett and Euphemia Smith, nor would Judge Bramber report to the Secretary till he was convinced that there was sufficient evidence for their prosecution.  It was not much to him that Caldigate should spend another week in prison.  The condition of Hester did not even come beneath his ken.  When he found allusion to it in the papers before him, he treated it as a matter which should not have been adduced,—­in bringing which under his notice there had been something akin to contempt of court, as though an endeavour had been made to talk him over in private.  He knew his own character, and was indignant that such an argument should have been used with himself.  He was perhaps a little more slow,—­something was added to his deliberation,—­because he was told that a young wife and an infant child were anxiously expecting the liberation of the husband and father.  It was not as yet clear to Judge Bramber that the woman had any such husband, or that the child could claim his father.