Then he went to Barchester; not open-mouthed with inquiry, but rather with open ears, and it seemed to him that all men in Barchester were of one mind.  There was a county-club in Barchester, and at this county-club nine men out of ten were talking about Mr Crawley.  It was by no means necessary that a man should ask questions on the subject.  Opinion was expressed so freely that no such asking was required; and opinion in Barchester—­at any rate in the county-club—­seemed now to be all of one mind.  There had been every disposition at first to believe Mr Crawley to be innocent.  He had been believed to be innocent even after he had said wrongly that the cheque had been paid to him by Mr Soames; but he had since stated that he had received it from Dean Arabin, and that statement was also shown to be false.  A man who has a cheque changed on his own behalf is bound at least to show where he got the cheque.  Mr Crawley had not only failed to do this, but had given two false excuses.  Henry Grantly, as he drove home to Silverbridge on the Sunday afternoon, summed up all the evidence in his own mind, and brought in a verdict of Guilty against the father of the girl whom he loved.

On the following morning he walked into Silverbridge and called at Miss Prettyman’s house.  As he went along his heart was warmer towards Grace than it had ever been before.  He had told himself that he was now bound to abstain, for his father’s sake, from doing that which he had told his father he certainly would do.  But he knew also, that he had said that which, though it did not bind him to Miss Crawley, gave her a right to expect that he would so bind himself.  And Miss Prettyman could not but be aware of what his intention had been, and could not but expect that he should not be explicit.  Had he been a wise man altogether, he would probably have abstained from saying anything at the present moment—­a wise man, that is, in the ways and feelings of the world in such matters.  But, as there are men who will allow themselves all imaginable latitude in their treatment of women, believing that the world will condone any amount of fault of that nature, so there are other men, and a class of men which on the whole is the more numerous of the two, who are tremblingly alive to the danger of censure on this head—­and to the danger of censure not only from others but from themselves also.  Major Grantly had done that which made him think it imperative upon him to do something further, and do that something at once.

Therefore he started off on the Monday morning after breakfast and walked into Silverbridge, and as he walked he built various castles in the air.  Why should he not marry Grace—­if she would have him—­and take her away beyond the reach of her father’s calamity?  Why should he not throw over his own people altogether, money, position, society, and all, and give himself up to love?  Were he to do so, men might say that he was foolish, but no one could hint that he was dishonourable.  His spirit was high enough to teach him to think that such conduct on his part would have in it something of magnificence; but, yet, such was not his purpose.  In going to Miss Prettyman it was his intention to apologise for not doing this magnificent thing.  His mind was quite made up.  Nevertheless he built castles in the air.