was such?"

"Have I a single reason to believe it?" said Curtis, doggedly. "If a man
of fifteen thousand a-year takes a wife, he selects a woman whose rank
and station are at least equal to his own, and he takes care besides
that the world knows it. If she brings him no fortune, he makes the more
fuss about her family, and parades her high relations. He does n't wed
in secret, and keep the day, the place, the witnesses, a mystery; he
doesn't avoid even a chance mention of the event to his dearest friends;
he does n't settle down to live in an obscure retreat, when he owns a
princely residence in the midst of his friends. When he does come back
amongst them, he does not shrink from presenting her to the world; to be
driven at last by necessity to the bold course,--to fill his house with
company, and see them drop off,--fritter away one by one, distrustful,
dissatisfied, and suspecting. Don't tell me, sir, that if he had a good
cause and a safe cause behind him, that Walter Carew would n't have
asked explanations, ay, and enforced them, too, from some of those
guests who rewarded his hospitality so scurvily. You knew him well; and
I ask you, was he the man to suffer the insolent attacks of the public
journals, if it were not that he dreaded even worse exposures by
provocation? You are a shrewd and a clever fellow, MacNaghten; and if
you don't see this matter as all the world sees it--"

"And is this the common belief? Do you tell me that such is the
impression abroad in society?"

"Consult Matt Fosbroke. Ask Harvey Hempton what his wife says. Go to
George Tisdall and get his account of their departure from Castle Carew,
and the answer they sent when invited there a second time."

"Why, all this is new to me!" cried MacNaghten, in amazement.

"To be sure, it's only circumstantial evidence," broke in Curtis, with a
bitter laugh; "but that is precisely what the courts of law tell you is
the most unimpeachable of all testimony. It may fail to convince you,
but it would be quite sufficient to hang me!"

The bare recurrence, for a second, to this theme at once brought back
the old man to his own case, into which he launched with all the fervor
of a full mind; now sneering at the capacity of those before whom he was
arraigned, now detailing with delight the insolent remarks he had taken
occasion to make on the administration of justice generally. It was
in vain that MacNaghten tried to lead him away from the subject. It
c