styn--"must be kept under guard till I reach my
mother. The magistrate will bring a couple of constables with him."

"This is a plot, then! You hear it! You! You, Tyrrel Rawdon, and you,
Saint Ethel, are in it, all here on time. A plot, I say! Let me loose
that I may strangle the cat-faced creature. Look at her hands, they are
already bloody!"

At these words Dora began to sob passionately, the servants, one and
all, to comfort her, or to abuse Mostyn, and in the height of the hubbub
Justice Manningham entered with two constables behind him.

"Take charge of Mr. Mostyn," he said to them, and as they laid their big
hands on his shoulders the Justice added, "You will consider yourself
under arrest, Mr. Mostyn."

And when nothing else could cow Mostyn, he was cowed by the law. He
sank almost fainting into his chair, and the Justice listened to Dora's
story, and looked indignantly at the brutal man, when she showed him her
torn dress and bruised shoulder. "I entreat your Honor," she said, "to
permit me to go to my mother who is now in London." And he answered
kindly, "You shall go. You are in a condition only a mother can help and
comfort. As soon as I have taken your deposition you shall go."

No one paid any attention to Mostyn's disclaimers and denials. The
Justice saw the state of affairs. Squire Rawdon and Mrs. Rawdon
testified to Dora's ill-usage; the butler, the coachman, the stablemen,
the cook, the housemaids were all eager to bear witness to the same; and
Mrs. Mostyn's appearance was too eloquent a plea for any humane man to
deny her the mother-help she asked for.

Though neighbors and members of the same hunt and clubs, the Justice
took no more friendly notice of Mostyn than he would have taken of any
wife-beating cotton-weaver; and when all lawful preliminaries had been
arranged, he told Mrs. Mostyn that he should not take up Mr. Mostyn's
case till Friday; and in the interval she would have time to put herself
under her mother's care. She thanked him, weeping, and in her old,
pretty way kissed his hands, and "vowed he had saved her life, and
she would forever remember his goodness." Mostyn mocked at her
"play-acting," and was sternly reproved by the Justice; and then Tyrrel
and Ethel took charge of Mrs. Mostyn until she was ready to leave for
London.

She was more nearly ready than they expected. All her trunks were
packed, and the butler promised to take them immediately to the railway
station. In a qua