me talk there was between us about the weather, me saying it was
seasonable for the time of year, and--"

"You needn't go into details about the weather," said Meldon. "I
suppose, sooner or later, something else happened?"

"There did then."

"And what was it?"

"There came a car up along the avenue with a gentleman on it, and it
was Patsy Flaherty that was driving it; and him lacing the old mare
with the whip the same as if the gentleman might be in a hurry."

"He was in a hurry," said Meldon. "As a matter of fact, he hadn't had
a bite to eat since the middle of the day yesterday, and not much then.
Any man would be in a hurry if he was as hungry as that judge."

"That may be. Any way, whatever the reason of it was, he had Patsy
Flaherty leathering the mare like the devil. Then, as soon as ever
Miss King set eyes on him, she was up out of the little bed where she
was, and the papers threw down on the ground, and her running as fast
as ever she could leg it across the grass."

"Poor thing!" said Meldon. "It must have been a shock to her to catch
sight of him like that. Where did she run to?"

"To meet him, of course," said Callaghan.

"To meet him! Be careful what you're saying now, Callaghan. It's more
likely she ran the other way."

"Amn't I telling you it was to meet him? And, what's more, you'd say
by the way she was running that she was thinking it a long time till
she got to him."

"You're mistaken about that," said Meldon. "Unless she completely lost
her head through sheer nervousness; it must have been away from him she
ran."

"It was not, but to him. And then as soon as ever he seen her coming
he put out his hand, and gripped a hold of Patsy Flaherty by the arm,
and 'Stop, ye divil,' says he. 'Haven't ye had enough of battering
that old screw for one day?' says he, 'and don't you see the young lady
that's coming across the lawn there and her lepping like a
two-year-old, so as the sight of her would make you supple and you
crippled with the rheumatics?'"

"I know now," said Meldon, "that you're telling me a pack of lies from
start to finish. There's not a judge in the world would say the words
you're putting into that one's mouth. It isn't the way judges talk,
nor the least like it. You oughtn't to try and invent things,
Callaghan. You can't do it. You haven't got any faculty for dramatic
probability in characterisation. That story of yours wouldn't go down
with Major Kent, and