perched on his soft woolsack. I'd like to roll
his round face in it until he choked." Then he
would come back again, and perfectly scandalise
his advisers by his behaviour in that sacred
presence.

This was during the argument. Mr. Tillotson,
though interested and anxious, too, had
not come. It was now the morning for the
judgment. Ross was there half an hour before
the time, with a wan and haggard face and very
bright eyes. The solicitors were there with an
ominous manner.

"You would not take advice," they said.
"Whatever turns up now is on your own head.
No client ever had such chances. It's too late
now, and we must only go through with it."

"And pray isn't that what I have always
said?" asked Ross, insolently. " Are you
trembling for your costs? By George, you
will be ' stuck' if it goes wrong. I could almost
laugh. I'd give something handsome to see
your faces. It would serve you right, too, for
you have bullied me enough between you, God
knows. But I think we shall pull through after
all. I am sure of it. Don't you think so?
Come, give a poor devil of a client some
comfort!"

This was one of his odd changes to which
they were accustomed. Mr. Dawkins shrugged
his shoulders.

"This would have been all very well a year
ago," he said. " You should have taken Mr.
Grainger's advice and mine."

Mr. Grainger was there, too, a little excited
also. He shrugged his shoulders. " Even Mrs.
Tillotson——" he said.

"Even Mrs.Tillotson," repeated Ross, mimicking.
" Even all the old women in the parish. I tell
you," he said, with fury, " that was just the reason.
Do you suppose I was going to give up to a low
whining usurer of that sort, whom I'll expose
yet, and ruin, too, before I die? What does
he mean? He began this years ago. Let him
take care! I have not done with him yet. If
this goes wrong, by the living——"

"Hush, hush!" said Mr. Dawkins, shocked
at such language in such a place. " This is
very bad, sir. This is not the way to do things."

"There, they are coming in."

Yes, they were coming in, the Chancellor pink-
faced and glistening (" beautifully shaved," said
some one), pinching his lips as if he had a
chocolate drop between them, and the two or
three stout old gentlemen in rather shabby old
suits. It was, indeed, like an empty cathedral.
In the whole place there was not half a dozen.
Even the counsel, except a junior or two, were
not there; and Ross, with grinding teeth, heard
a gay young barrister (with a bag heavy with
law books) show in a party of ladies for a
moment, and led them away with the remark,
"No interest—not worth waiting for. Only a
trifling case."

He did not see the scowl that Ross followed
him with. " I'd like," said the latter, "just to
walk after him, and beat his impudent face with
his own bag, and before his ladies, too."

But here they were giving judgment.

It was a very short matter. There were only
three noble lords present. The tall yellow lord
gave his reading of it. He had no doubt on
the matter. The case had deserved all the
attention it had received, and certainly, primâ
facie, it would seem that a view which had
been so carefully adopted, first, by a jury, then
by that eminent tribunal below, would be the
right view. In that view he concurred, &c.

"He is with us breast high," whispered Mr.
Dawkins, with great alacrity.

"What did I tell you?" said Ross, whose
breath was coming and going. " You are an
unbelieving lot. Ah! my head is worth the
whole gang's."

"Hush, hush!" said Mr. Dawkins, angrily.

Then came the stout lord. His judgment
was merely a sentence—a mumble—and he had
done.

Mr. Dawkins stood with his hand to his ear
trying to catch it.

"What's that? What did he say?" asked
Ross, almost aloud.

Mr. Dawkins, without taking down his hand
or looking at him, angrily jerked him with his
elbow, and whispered a counsel.

"What did he say?" said Ross, angrily.
"Curse you! Will you speak?"

Mr. Dawkins gave him a ferocious look.
"Hold your tongue," he said. " He is against
us, and so will be this one too. It's all up!"

The Chancellor had begun in his slow sweet
monotone. It was one of the most extra-a-
ordinary cases that could be conceived, not
on account of the subject-matter, which would
not too severely try the powers of even a county
court judge, but on account of the inconceivable
perversions which seem to have directed the
em-i-nent persons who had had to deal with the
cause. Those eminent persons, he was obliged
to say, had been all astray in the views they had
taken, and almost, as a matter of course, he
should be under the necessity of ordering a
revision of the whole proceedings. In short——

At this point something of the truth seemed
to be breaking in on Ross. He looked from
the Chancellor with a miserable air of doubt and
uncertainty to his agents. " What's he saying?"
But the faces of these gentlemen were growing
darker and darker. Something like baffled fury
was in Mr. Dawkins's face. He did not even
answer the question; for Ross, in a few
moments, would almost cease to be his client. It
was like the change in the position of a criminal
after verdict and sentence. But Ross did not
accept this view.

"Have you no tongue in that infernal head
of yours? If you don't speak, I'll expose you
betore the whole place."

Mr. Dawkins's partner rose hastily, and,
taking his client by the arm, led him away. " It
is all up with you," he said. " The Chancellor
is against you."

Ross was aghast, and stared at him a little
wildly. But he did not follow as yet. " I know
that, of course; but he hasn't——"