Dr. Wortle’s School

which was written for the delectation of its readers in reference to Dr. Wortle and Mrs. Peacocke. The Broughton Gazette no doubt confined itself to the clerical and highly moral views of the case, and, having dealt with the subject chiefly on behalf of the Close and the admirers of the Close, had made no allusion to the fact that Mrs. Peacocke was a very pretty woman. One or two other local papers had been more scurrilous, and had, with ambiguous and timid words, alluded to the Doctor’s personal admiration for the lady. These, or the rumours created by them, had reached one of the funniest and lightest-handed of the contributors to Everybody’s Business, and he had concocted an amusing article⁠—which he had not intended to be at all libellous, which he had thought to be only funny. He had not appreciated, probably, the tragedy of the lady’s position, or the sanctity of that of the gentleman. There was comedy in the idea of the Doctor having sent one husband away to America to look after the other while he consoled the wife in England. “It must be admitted,” said the writer, “that the Doctor has the best of it. While one gentleman is gouging the other⁠—as cannot but be expected⁠—the Doctor will be at any rate in security, enjoying the smiles of beauty under his own fig-tree at Bowick. After a hot morning with τυπτω in the school, there will be amo in the cool of the evening.” And this was absolutely sent to him by some good-natured friend!

The funny writer obtained a popularity wider probably than he had expected. His words reached Mrs. Stantiloup, as well as the Doctor, and were read even in the Bishop’s palace. They were quoted even in the Broughton Gazette, not with approbation, but in a high tone of moral severity. “See the nature of the language to which Dr. Wortle’s conduct has subjected the whole of the diocese!” That was the tone of the criticism made by the Broughton Gazette on the article in Everybody’s Business. “What else has he a right to expect?” said Mrs. Stantiloup to Mrs. Rolland, having made quite a journey into Broughton for the sake of discussing it at the palace. There she explained it all to Mrs. Rolland, having herself studied the passage so as fully to appreciate the virus contained in it. “He passes all the morning in the school whipping the boys himself because he has sent Mr. Peacocke away, and then amuses himself in the evening by making love to Mr. Peacocke’s wife, as he calls her.” Dr. Wortle, when he read and reread the article, and when the jokes which were made upon it reached his ears, as they were sure to do, was nearly maddened by what he called the heartless iniquity of the world; but his state became still worse when he received an affectionate but solemn letter from the Bishop warning him of his danger. An affectionate letter from a bishop must surely be the most disagreeable missive which a parish clergyman can receive. Affection from one man to another is not natural in letters. A bishop never writes affectionately unless he means to reprove severely. When he calls a clergyman his “dear brother in Christ,” he is sure to go on to show that the man so called is altogether unworthy of the name. So it was with a letter now received at Bowick, in which the Bishop expressed his opinion that Dr. Wortle ought not to pay any further visits to Mrs. Peacocke till she should have settled herself down with one legitimate husband, let that legitimate husband be who it might. The Bishop did not indeed, at first, make reference by name to Everybody’s Business, but he stated that the “metropolitan press” had taken up the matter, and that scandal would take place in the diocese if further cause were given. “It is not enough to be innocent,” said the Bishop, “but men must know that we are so.”

Then there came a sharp and pressing correspondence between the Bishop and the Doctor, which lasted four or five days. The Doctor, without referring to any other portion of the Bishop’s letter, demanded to know to what “metropolitan newspaper” the Bishop had alluded, as, if any such paper had spread scandalous imputations as to him, the Doctor, respecting the lady in question, it would be his, the Doctor’s, duty to proceed against that newspaper for libel. In answer to this the Bishop, in a note much shorter and much less affectionate than his former letter, said that he did not wish to name any metropolitan newspaper. But the Doctor would not, of course, put up with such an answer as this. He wrote very solemnly now, if not affectionately. “His lordship had spoken of ‘scandal in the diocese.’ The words,” said the Doctor, “contained a most grave charge. He did not mean to say that any such accusation had been made by the Bishop himself; but such accusation must have been made by someone at least of the London newspapers or the Bishop would not have been justified in what he has written. Under such circumstances he, Dr. Wortle, thought himself entitled to demand from the Bishop the name of the newspaper in question, and the date on which the article had appeared.”

In answer to this there came no written reply, but a copy of the Everybody’s Business which the Doctor had already seen. He had, no doubt, known from the first that it was the funny paragraph about τυπτω and amo to which the Bishop had referred. But in the serious steps which he now intended to take, he was determined to have positive proof from the hands of the Bishop himself. The Bishop had not directed the pernicious newspaper with his own hands, but if called upon, could not deny that