charge.

"He came like a serpent into the bosom of our peaceful circle, and with
the arts that his crafty calling but too well supplied, seduced my young
affections."

Mr. Kennyfeck started. It had never before occurred to him that Don Juan
was among his range of parts.

"False and unfeeling both," resumed she. "Luring with promises never
intended for performance, you took me from a home, the very sanctuary of
peace!"

Mr. Kennyfeck wiped his forehead in perplexity; his recollection of the
home in question was different. Sanctuary it might have been, but it
was against the officers of the law and the sheriff, and so far as a
well-fastened hall door and barricaded windows went, the epithet did not
seem quite unsuitable.

"Ah!" sighed she--for it is right to remark that Mrs. Kennyfeck was a
mistress of that domestic harmony which consists in every modulation,
from the grand adagio of indignant accusation to the rattling andante
of open abuse--"had I listened to those older and wiser than I, and who
foretold the destiny that awaited me, I had never seen this unhappy day!
No, sir! I had not lived to see myself outraged and insulted, and my
only sister turned out of the house like a discarded menial."

Had Mr. Kennyfeck been informed that for courteously making way for a
Bencher in the Hall he was stripped of his gown and degraded from his
professional rank, he could not have been more thoroughly amazed and
thunderstruck.

He actually gasped with excess of astonishment, and, if breath had been
left him, would have spoken; but so it was, the very force of the charge
stunned him, and he could not utter a word.

Meanwhile, Mrs. Kennyfeck, who in the ardor of combat had imitated
certain Spanish sailors, who in the enthusiasm of a sea-fight loaded
their cannons with whatever came next to hand, was actually shocked by
the effect of her own fire. For the grandeur of a peroration she had
taken a flying leap over all truth, and would gladly have been safe back
again at the other side of the fence.

For an instant not a word dropped from either side, and it was clear
that he who spoke first had gained the victory. This was the lady.

"Go, sir"--and she wiped her eyes with that calm dignity by which a
scolding wife seems to call up all Christian forgiveness of herself, and
stand acquitted before her own conscience--"go, sir, and find out what
these people that Cashel has invited mean to do; and if it be their
intention to