Mr.Soames was confident that he had dropped the pocket-book at the parsonage.

Mrs.Crawley had always disliked Mr.Soames, thinking him to be hard, cruel, and vulgar.

She would not have hesitated to believe him guilty of a falsehood, or even of direct dishonesty, if by so believing she could in her own mind have found the means of reconciling her husband's possession of the cheque with absolute truth on his part.

But she could not do so.
Even though Soames had, with devilish premeditated malice, slipped the cheque into her husband's pocket, his having done so would not account for her husband's having used the cheque when he found it there.

She was driven to make excuses for him which, valid as they might be with herself, could not be valid with others.