ensued; a very solemn pause each felt it, well knowing that at
such a moment the slightest word may be the signal for disclosures which
involve a destiny. Up to this, nothing had been said on either side of
"the cause;" and though Sedley had travelled across Europe to speak of
it, he waited with decorous reserve till his host should invite him to
the topic.

Bramleigh, an awkward and timid man at the best of times, was still
more so when he found himself in a situation in which he should give
the initiative. As the entertainer of a guest, too, he fancied that to
introduce his personal interests as matter of conversation would be in
bad taste, and so he fidgeted, and passed the decanters across the table
with a nervous impatience, trying to seem at his ease, and stammering
out at last some unmeaning question about the other's journey.

Sedley replied to the inquiry with a cold and measured politeness, as a
man might to a matter purely irrelevant.

"The Continent is comparatively new ground to you, Mr. Sedley?"

"Entirely so. I have never been beyond Brussels before this."

"Late years have nearly effaced national peculiarities. One crosses
frontiers now, and never remembers a change of country."

"Quite so."

"The money, the coinage, perhaps, is the great reminder after all."

"Money is the great reminder of almost everything, everywhere, sir,"
said Sedley, with a stern and decisive tone.

"I am afraid you are right," said Bramleigh, with a faint sigh; and now
they seemed to stand on the brink of a precipice, and look over.

"What news have you for me?" said he at last, gulping as he spoke.

"None to cheer, nothing to give encouragement. The discovery at Castello
will insure them a verdict. We cannot dispute the marriage; it was
solemnized in all form and duly witnessed. The birth of the child was
also carefully authenticated--there is n't a flaw in the registry, and
they 'll take care to remind us on the second trial of how freely
we scattered our contemptuous sarcasms on the illegitimacy of this
connection on the first record."

"Is the case hopeless, then?"

"Nothing is hopeless where a jury enters, but it is only short of
hopeless. Kelson of course says he is sure, and perhaps so should I, in
his place. Still they might disagree again: there's a strong repugnance
felt by juries against dispossessing an old occupant. All can feel the
hardship of his case, and the sympathy for him goes a great way."

"