and came forward
to meet us, shaking Mr. Bellingham's hand cordially and saluting Miss
Bellingham with a courtly bow.

"This is Mr. Marchmont, Doctor," said the former, introducing me; and
the solicitor, having thanked me for the trouble I had taken in
attending at the inquest, led us to a bench, at the farther end of which
was seated a gentleman whom I recognised as Mr. Hurst.

Mr. Bellingham recognised him at the same moment and glared at him
wrathfully.

"I see that scoundrel is here!" he exclaimed in a distinctly audible
voice, "pretending that he doesn't see me, because he is ashamed to look
me in the face, but--"

"Hush! hush! my dear sir," exclaimed the horrified solicitor; "we
mustn't talk like that, especially in this place. Let me beg you--let me
entreat you to control your feelings, to make no indiscreet remarks; in
fact, to make no remarks at all," he added, with the evident conviction
that any remarks that Mr. Bellingham might make would be certain to be
indiscreet.

"Forgive me, Marchmont," Mr. Bellingham replied contritely. "I will
control myself; I will really be quite discreet. I won't even look at
him again--because, if I do, I shall probably go over and pull his
nose."

This particular form of discretion did not appear to be quite to Mr.
Marchmont's liking, for he took the precaution of insisting that Miss
Bellingham and I should sit on the farther side of his client, and thus
effectually separate him from his enemy.

"Who's the long-nosed fellow talking to Jellicoe?" Mr. Bellingham asked.

"That is Mr. Loram, K.C., Mr. Hurst's counsel; and the convivial-looking
gentleman next to him is our counsel, Mr. Heath, a most able man
and"--here Mr. Marchmont whispered behind his hand--"fully instructed by
Doctor Thorndyke."

At this juncture the judge entered and took his seat; the usher
proceeded with great rapidity to swear in the jury, and the Court
gradually settled down into that state of academic quiet which it
maintained throughout the proceedings, excepting when the noisy
swing-doors were set oscillating by some bustling clerk or reporter.

The judge was a somewhat singular-looking old gentleman, very short as
to his face and very long as to his mouth; which peculiarities, together
with a pair of large and bulging eyes (which he usually kept closed),
suggested a certain resemblance to a frog. And he had a curious
frog-like trick of flattening his eyelids--as if in the act of
swallowing