his brother of yours be?"

"Harry! Mr. Beauchamp! You here!" she exclaimed, in the extremity of
amazement.

"Here is Colin seeming to think that something may be done towards
nailing this scoundrel for the present, so I am come at his call. We
shall have the fellow in a moment." And then, by way of getting rid of
embarrassment, he began talking to Mr. Grey about the County Hall, and
the room, which Mr. Grey explained to be that of the clerk of the peace,
lent for this occasion while the usual justice room was occupied, Alison
heard all as in a dream, and presently Mauleverer entered, as usual
spruce, artist-like, and self-possessed, and was accosted by Harry
Beauchamp, "Good evening, Mr. Maddox, I am sorry to trouble you."

"I hope there is no misunderstanding, sir," was the reply. "I have not
the pleasure of knowing for whom you take me."

Without regarding this reply, however, Mr. Beauchamp requested Mr. Grey
to take his deposition, stating his own belief in the identity of the
person before him with Richard Maddox, whom he charged with having
delivered to him a letter falsely purporting to come from Edward
Williams, demanding three hundred pounds, which upon this he had
delivered to the accused, to be forwarded to the said Mr. Williams.

Alison's heart beat violently at the ordeal before her of speaking to
the genuineness of the letter. She had seen and suspected that to her
brother-in-law, but she could not guess whether the flaws in that to
Mr. Beauchamp would be equally palpable, and doubt and anxiety made her
scarcely able to look at it steadily. To her great relief, however, she
was able to detect sufficient variations to justify her assertion that
it was not authentic, and she was able to confirm her statement by
comparison of the writing with that of a short, indignant denial of
all knowledge of the transaction, which Harry Beauchamp had happily
preserved, though little regarding it at the time. She also showed the
wrong direction, with the name of the place misspelt, according to
her own copy of her sister-in-law's address, at the request of Maddox
himself, and pointed out that a letter to Ermine from her brother
bore the right form. The seal upon that to Mr. Beauchamp she likewise
asserted to be the impression of one which her brother had lost more
than a year before the date of the letter.

"Indeed, sir," said the accused, fuming to Mr. Grey, "this is an
exceedingly hard case. Here am I, newly acquitt