d that. And I hope you don't think that I've been
in any way disrespectful to you. I didn't mean to be. I have the
highest possible regard for all judges, and what I said just now about
legal fictions was simply meant to avoid prolonging a discussion which
can't have been pleasant for you. And after all, you know, it was
rather absurd your trying to come the judge over me, considering what
we were talking about. You wouldn't have done it, I'm sure, if you'd
stopped for a moment to consider the peculiar and rather delicate
circumstances under which we are carrying on this negotiation. I
expect the habit of talking in that judicial way was too strong for
you. You forgot for the moment what it was we were speaking about, and
thought it was some ordinary law case. The force of habit is a
wonderful thing. Have you ever noticed--"

"So far as I have been able to discover up to the present," said the
judge, "you are greatly interested in bringing about a marriage between
your friend and my niece."

"Interested is a dubious sort of word to use, and I don't like it. Let
us be quite clear about what we mean. In one sense I am interested; in
another sense I am entirely disinterested--which is the exact opposite.
You catch my point, don't you? It is a very instructive thing to
reflect on the curious ambiguity of words. But I am sure you can tell
me more about that than I can possibly tell you. With your legal
experience you must have come across scores of instances of the
extraordinarily deceptive nature of words."

"You thought apparently that I should be likely to object to the
marriage, and therefore you tried to keep me out of Ballymoy, using
means which might be described as unscrupulous."

"I've already apologised for the paraffin oil," said Meldon. "A full
and ample apology, such as I have offered, is generally considered to
close an incident of that kind. In the old duelling days, when men
used to go out at early dawn to shoot at each other with pistols, the
one who had shied the wine glass at the other the night before often
used to apologise; and when he did the pistols were put up into their
case, and both parties went back comfortably to breakfast. I've often
wondered that men of your profession--judges, I mean--didn't do
something effective to put a stop to duelling. It was always against
the law, and yet we had to wait for the slow growth of public opinion--"

"Then," said the judge, "you change