I have said that he was moody and disappointed.

He was even worse than this; he was morose, sometimes almost to insanity.
There had been days in which even his wife had found it impossible to deal with him otherwise than as with an acknowledged lunatic.

And this was known among the farmers, who talked about their clergyman among themselves as though he were a madman.

But among the very poor, among the brickmakers of Hoggle End,--a lawless, drunken, terribly rough lot of humanity,--he was held in high respect; for they knew that he lived hardly, as they lived; that he worked hard, as they worked; and that the outside world was hard to him, as it was to them; and there had been an apparent sincerity of godliness about the man, and a manifest struggle to do his duty in spite of the world's ill-usage, which had won its way even with the rough; so that Mr.
Crawley's name had stood high with many in his parish, in spite of the unfortunate peculiarity of his disposition.

This was the man who was now accused of stealing a cheque for twenty pounds.
But before the circumstances of the alleged theft are stated, a word or two must be said as to Mr.Crawley's family.