e him.
Here is the writ; will you accept service?"

"Oh, certainly, Mr. Wheeler and I am glad to find you do not make a
habit of serving writs on gentlemen in person."

"Of course not. I did it on a single occasion, contrary to my own wish,
and went in person--to soften the blow--instead of sending my clerk."

After this little spar, the two artists in law bade each other farewell
with every demonstration of civility.

Sir Charles would not apologize.

The plaintiff filed his declaration.

The defendant pleaded not guilty, but did not disclose a defense. The
law allows a defendant in libel this advantage.

Plaintiff joined issue, and the trial was set down for the next
assizes.

Sir Charles was irritated, but nothing more. Lady Bassett, with a
woman's natural shrinking from publicity, felt it more deeply. She
would have given thousands of her own money to keep the matter out of
court. But her very terror of Richard Bassett restrained her. She was
always thinking about him, and had convinced herself he was the ablest
villain in the wide world; and she thought to herself, "If, with his
small means, he annoys Charles so, what would he do if I were to enrich
him? He would crush us."

As the trial drew near she began to hover about Sir Charles in his
study, like an anxious hen. The maternal yearnings were awakened in her
by marriage, and she had no child; so her Charles in trouble was
husband and child.

Sometimes she would come in and just kiss his forehead, and run out
again, casting back a celestial look of love at the door, and, though
it was her husband she had kissed, she blushed divinely. At last one
day she crept in and said, very timidly, "Charles dear, the anonymous
letter--is not that an excuse for libeling him--as they call telling
the truth?"

"Why, of course it is. Have you got it?"

"Dearest, the brave lady took it away."

"The brave lady! Who is that?"

"Why, the lady that came with Mr. Oldfield and pleaded your cause with
papa--oh, so eloquently! Sometimes when I think of it now I feel almost
jealous. Who is she?"

"From what you have always told me, I think it was the Sister of
Charity who nursed me."

"You silly thing, she was no Sister of Charity; that was only put on.
Charles, tell me the truth. What does it matter _now?_ It was some lady
who loved you."

"Loved me, and set her wits to work to marry me to you?"

"Women's love is so disinterested--sometimes."

"No, no; she told