lation whom one is inclined to keep in the background as much as
possible. I am relying on that feeling to secure the help of the
judge."

"For what?"

"To marry Miss King to Simpkins, of course. The thing we've been at
all along."

"He won't do that. No man living would marry his niece to Simpkins."

"That depends on the nature of the niece. There are nieces--there's no
use denying it, Major, because it's unfortunately true. There are
nieces that a man would be glad to see married to any one. And there's
a great deal to be said in favour of the Simpkins alliance in this
particular case."

"No, there isn't. The man is a cad."

"I don't think nearly so badly of Simpkins as you do, Major. I've told
you that before. But, even granting what you say is true, the judge
probably argues that Miss King with her record can't expect anything
better. He'll be glad enough to get Simpkins for her. He'll recollect
that Ballymoy is a frightfully out-of-the-way place, and that if Miss
King is married to a man who lives here none of her friends will ever
see any more of her. That's exactly what he wants; and so I
confidently expect that, once the position is explained to him, he'll
simply jump at the chance."

"Do you mean to say," said the Major--"I am now supposing that all your
ridiculous ideas are true, and that Miss King will really--"

He hesitated.

"Kill Simpkins?" said Meldon. "That's what you want done, isn't it?"

"Do you mean to say that you think the judge will go out of his way to
encourage her to commit another crime?"

"It's not the business of a judge to prevent crime," said Meldon. "You
mustn't mix him up with the police. The police have to see that people
don't do what's wrong. Judges have to punish them afterwards for what
the police fail to stop them from doing. The judge won't step out of
his proper sphere and start doing police work. If he did there'd be
endless confusion. And besides that, I don't expect the judge will
think that she means to kill Simpkins. He doesn't understand as we do
that she is acting in the interests of her art. She probably, in fact
certainly, hasn't told him what she told me--that she has come to
Ballymoy with the intention of going on with her work. He'll think
that the narrow shave she had over the Lorimer affair will have given
her a lesson, and that from now on she'll want to settle down and live
a quiet, affectionate kind of life. When she kissed h