He was obliged to think how every word and
deed would be construed. He fancied that people were watching him with
suspicious eyes, when nothing was further from their thoughts. For once
let the "public" of any place be possessed by an idea, it is more
difficult to dislodge it than any one imagines who has not tried. If Mr.
Wilkins had gone into Hamley market-place, and proclaimed himself guilty
of the manslaughter of Mr. Dunster--nay, if he had detailed all the
circumstances--the people would have exclaimed, "Poor man, he is crazed
by this discovery of the unworthiness of the man he trusted so; and no
wonder--it was such a thing to have done--to have defrauded his partner
to such an extent, and then have made off to America!"
For many small circumstances, which I do not stop to detail here, went
far to prove this, as we know, unfounded supposition; and Mr. Wilkins,
who was known, from his handsome boyhood, through his comely manhood, up
to the present time, by all the people in Hamley, was an object of
sympathy and respect to every one who saw him, as he passed by, old, and
lorn, and haggard before his time, all through the evil conduct of one,
London-bred, who was as a hard, unlovely stranger to the popular mind of
this little country town.
Mr. Wilkins's own servants liked him. The workings of his temptations
were such as they could understand.
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