he small capital was lent to him by John Caldigate. There he took
steadily to work, and it is hoped by his friends that he will soon begin
to repay the loan.

The uncle, aunt, and cousins at Babington soon renewed their intimacy
with John Caldigate, and became intimate with Hester. The old squire
still turned up his nose at them, as he had done all his life, calling
them Boeotians, and reminding his son that Suffolk had always been a
silly county. But the Babingtons, one and all, knew this, and had no
objection to be accounted thick-headed as long as they were acknowledged
to be prosperous, happy, and comfortable. It had always been considered
at Babington that young Caldigate was brighter and more clever than
themselves; and yet he had been popular with them as a cousin of whom
they ought to be proud. He was soon restored to his former favour, and
after his return from the Continent spent a fortnight at the Hall, with
his wife, very comfortably. Julia, indeed, was not there, nor Mr.
Smirkie. Among all their neighbours and acquaintances Mr. Smirkie was
the last to drop the idea that there must have been something in that
story of an Australian marriage. His theory of the law on the subject
was still incorrect. The Queen's pardon, he said, could not do away with
the verdict, and therefore he doubted whether the couple could be
regarded as man and wife. He was very anxious that they should be
married again, and with great good-nature offered to perform the
ceremony himself either at Plum-cum-Pippins or even in the drawing-room
at Folking.

'Suffolk to the very backbone!' was the remark of the Cambridgeshire
squire when he heard of this very kind offer. But even he at last came
round, under his wife's persuasion, when he found that the paternal
mansion was likely to be shut against him unless he yielded.

Hester's second tour with her husband was postponed for some weeks,
because it was necessary that her husband should appear as a witness
against Crinkett and Euphemia Smith. They were tried also at Cambridge,
but not before Judge Bramber. The woman never yielded an inch. When she
found how it was going with her, she made fast her money, and with
infinite pluck resolved that she would endure with patience whatever
might be in store for her, and wait for better times. When put into the
dock she pleaded not guilty with a voice that was audible only to the
jailer standing beside her, and after that did not open her mouth du