ll, as it may be
necessary to hear the depositions also of the doctor and his wife. We
shall have to get him out.'

'You know best, Sir John.'

'We shall have to get him out, Mr. Seely, I think,' said Sir John,
rising from his chair. Then Mr. Seely took his leave, as was intended.

Mr. Seely was not at all convinced. He was quite willing that John
Caldigate should be released from prison, and that the Australian
marriage should be so put out of general credit in England as to allow
the young people to live in comfort at Folking as man and wife. But he
liked to feel that he knew better himself. He would have been quite
content that Mrs. John Caldigate should be Mrs. John Caldigate to all
the world,--that all the world should be imposed on,--so that he was
made subject to no imposition. In this matter, Sir John appeared to him
to be no wider awake than a mere layman. It was clear to Mr. Seely that
Dick Shand's story was 'got up,'--and very well got up. He had no pang
of conscience as to using it. But when it came to believing it, that
was quite another thing. The man turning up exactly at the moment! And
such a man! And then his pretending never to have heard of a case so
famous! Never to have heard this story of his most intimate friend! And
then his notorious poverty! Old Caldigate would of course be able to buy
such a man. And then Sir John's fatuity as to Bagwax! He could hardly
bring himself to believe that Sir John was quite in earnest. But he was
well aware that Sir John would know,--no one better,--by what arguments
such a verdict as had been given might be practically set aside. The
verdict would remain. But a pardon, if a pardon could be got from the
Secretary of State, would make the condition of the husband and wife the
same as though there had been no verdict. The indignities which they had
already suffered would simply produce for them the affectionate
commendation of all England. Mr. Seely felt all that, and was not at all
averse to a pardon. He was not at all disposed to be severe on Caldigate
senior if, as he thought, Caldigate senior had bribed this convenient
new witness. But it was too much to expect that he should believe it all
himself.

'You must come with me, Mr. Shand,' he said, 'and we must take your
story down in writing. Then you must swear to it before a magistrate.'

'All right, Mr. Seely.'

'We must be very particular, you know.'

'I needn't be particular at all;--and as to what Sir