"Well, I can't exactly say that it is a shame. I do not know that there has been anything done with a feeling of persecution or of cruelty. It is a great mystery, and we must have it cleared up if we can."
"I don't suppose he can have been guilty," said Johnny.
"Certainly not in the ordinary sense of the word. I heard all the evidence against him."
"Oh, you did?"
"Yes," said the major. "I live near them in Barsetshire, and I am one of his bailsmen."
"Then you are an old friend, I suppose?"
"Not exactly that; but circumstances make me very much interested about them. I fancy that the cheque was left in his house by accident, and that it got into his hands he didn't know how, and that when he used it he thought it was his."
"That's queer," said Johnny.
"He is very odd, you know."
"But it's a kind of oddity that they don't like at the assizes."