And at last there had come forth from the butcher's shop a threat that if the money were not paid by a certain date, printed bills should be posted about the county.

All who heard of this in Silverbridge were very angry with Mr.Fletcher, for no one there had ever known a tradesman to take such a step before; but Fletcher swore that he would persevere, and defended himself by showing that six or seven months since, in the spring of the year, Mr.Crawley had been paying money in Silverbridge, but had paid none to him,--to him who had been not only his earliest, but his most enduring creditor.

"He got money from the dean in March," said Mr.Fletcher to Mr.Walker, "and he paid twelve pounds ten to Green, and seventeen pounds to Grobury, the baker." It was that seventeen pounds to Grobury, the baker, for flour, which made the butcher so fixedly determined to smite the poor clergyman hip and thigh.

"And he paid money to Hall, and to Mrs.
Holt, and to a deal more; but he never came near my shop.

If he had even shown himself, I would not have said so much about it." And then a day before the date named, Mrs.Crawley had come to Silverbridge, and had paid the butcher twenty pounds in four five-pound notes.