‘Mamma, there’s a man at the gate waiting to come in,’ said Jane.  ’I think he’s a clergyman.’

Mr Crawley immediately raised his head, though he did not at once leave his chair.  Mrs Crawley went to the window, and recognised the reverend visitor.  ’My dear, it is that Mr Thumble, who is so much with the bishop.’

‘What does Mr Thumble want with me.’

‘Nay, my dear; he will tell you that himself.’  But Mrs Crawley, though she answered him with a voice intended to be cheerful, greatly feared the coming messenger from the palace.  She perceived at once that the bishop was about to interfere with her husband in consequence of that which the magistrates had done yesterday.

‘Mamma, he doesn’t know what to do with his pony,’ said Jane.

‘Tell him to tie it to the rail,’ said Mr Crawley.  ’If he has expected to find menials here, as he has them at the palace, he will be wrong.  If he wants to come in here, let him tie the beast to the rail.’  So Jane went out and sent a message to Mr Thumble by the girl, and Mr Thumble did tie the pony to the rail, and followed the girl into the house.  Jane in the meantime had retired out by the back door to the school but Mrs Crawley kept her ground.  She kept her ground although she believed that her husband would have preferred to have the field to himself.  As Mr Thumble did not at once enter the room, Mr Crawley stalked to the door, and stood with it open in his hand.  Though he knew Mr Thumble’s person, he was not acquainted with him, and therefore simply bowed to the visitor, bowing more than once or twice with a cold courtesy, which did not put Mr Thumble altogether at his ease.  ‘My name is Mr Thumble,’ said the visitor—­’the Reverend Caleb Thumble,’ and he held the bishop’s letter in his hand.  Mr Crawley seemed to take no notice of the letter, but motioned Mr Thumble with his hand into the room.

‘I suppose you have come from Barchester this morning?’ said Mrs Crawley.

‘Yes, madam—­from the palace.’  Mr Thumble, though a humble man in positions in which he felt humility would become him—­a humble man to his betters, as he himself would have expressed it—­had still about him something of that pride which naturally belonged to those clergymen who were closely attached to the palace at Barchester.  Had he been sent on a message to Plumstead—­could any such message from Barchester palace have been possible—­he would have been properly humble in his demeanour to the archdeacon, or to Mrs Grantly had he been admitted to the august presence of that lady; but he was aware that humility would not become him on this present mission; he had been expressly ordered to be firm by Mrs Proudie, and firm he meant to be; and therefore, in communicating to Mrs Crawley the fact that he had come from the palace, he did load the tone of his voice with something of the dignity which Mr Crawley might perhaps be excused for regarding as arrogance.