"Ah, well, it might have been worse," said Gorringe, giving a snip with his scissors that made Gemp start as if it were his own well-frayed thread of life being cut through. "Oh, of course it might have been worse; but a lot of us have lost, eh, neighbour?" "Dixons' and Sir Gordon have come down very handsome over it," said Gorringe, who was designing a garment, as he called it, with a piece of French chalk. "And the parson," said Gemp; "only to think of it--a parson, a curate, with one-and-twenty thousand pound in his pocket." "Ay, it come in handy," said Gorringe. "Now, where did he get that money, eh? It's a wonderful sight for a man like him," said Gemp, with a suspicious look. "London. I heerd tell that he said he had been to London to get it." "Ay, he said so," cried Gemp, shaking his head, "but it looks suspicious, mun. Here was he hand and glove with the Hallams, always at their house and mixed up like. I want to know where he got that money. I say, sir, that a curate with twenty thousand pound of his own is a sort o' monster as ought to be levelled down." The tailor pushed up his glasses to the roots of his hair, and left off his work to hold up his shears menacingly at his crony. "Gemp, old man," he said, "I would not be such a cantankerous, suspicious old magpie as you for a hundred pounds; and look here, if you're going to pull buttons off the back o' parson's coat, go and do it somewhere else, and not in my shop." "Oh! you needn't be so up," said Gemp. "Look here," he cried, pointing straight at his friend, "what did Thickens say about the writings?" "Spoke fair as a man could speak," said Gorringe, resuming his architectural designs in chalk and cloth, "said he felt uncomfortable about the matter first when he saw Hallam give a package to a man named Crellock--chap who often come down to see him; that he was suspicious like that for two years, but never had an opportunity of doing more than be doubtful till just lately." "Why didn't he speak out to a friend--say to a man like me?" "Because, I'm telling you, it was only suspicion. Hallam managed the thing very artfully, and threw dust in Thickens's eyes; but last of all he see his way clear, and went and told parson. And just then Sir Gordon were suspicious, too, and had got something to go upon, and they nabbed my gentleman just as he was going away." "And do you believe all this?" cried Gemp. "To be sure I do. Don't you?" "Tchah! I'm afraid they're all in it." "Ah! well, I'm not; and, as we've nothing to lose, I don't care." "How did Hallam look?" "Very white; and, my word! he did give parson a look when he was called up to give his evidence. He looked black at Thickens and at Sir Gordon, but he seemed regularly savage with parson." "Ah, to be sure!" cried Gemp. "What did I say about being thick with parson? It's my belief that if all had their deserts parson would be standing in the dock alongside o' Hallam."