One is my true and honorable wife,
As dear to me as are the ruddy drops
That visit my sad heart.
--SHAKESPEARE.

In due time they reached the village and were driven at once to the
office of the magistrate, Squire Estep, of Spring Hill Manor.

No rumor of the arrest had got abroad, and no crowd was collected about
the office doors.

The sheriff alighted first, and was followed out by the accused and his
two friends.

They entered the office, where just then no one was present except the
magistrate, one clerk and two constables.

The three gentlemen bowed as they entered, and the venerable magistrate
arose and acknowledged their presence by a nod and sat down again.

The sheriff laid the warrant on the table before the magistrate and,
pointing to Mr. Alden Lytton, said:

"That is the prisoner, your worship."

One of the constables placed chairs, and the gentlemen seated themselves
and waited.

"White," said Mr. Estep, addressing one of the constables, "go to the
Reindeer and serve this upon the gentleman to whom it is directed, and
whom you will find there."

The constable took the slip of paper from the speaker's hand, bowed and
went out.

And the three gentlemen waited with what patience they might command,
while the magistrate drummed upon the table with his fingers.

Presently the constable returned, ushering in two persons, in one of
whom Alden Lytton recognized his great rival at the bar, Philip Desmond.
The other, an elderly gentleman in a clergyman's dress, was a total
stranger to him.

Both these gentlemen bowed to the magistrate and to the accused and his
friends, and one of them--the clerical stranger--came up to Alden and,
to his great amazement, said:

"I am very sorry, Mr. Lytton, in meeting you a second time, to see you
here in this position; sorrier still that I am here to bear testimony
against you."

While he was saying this the magistrate, who was engaged in searching
among some documents, drew forth from them a paper which seemed to be a
memorandum, which he from time to time consulted, as he addressed the
accused and said:

"You are Mr. Alden Lytton, attorney at law, of the Richmond bar, I
believe?"

"I am," answered Alden Lytton.

"Attend, if you please, to the reading of this," said the magistrate, as
he commenced and read out aloud the warrant upon which the accused had
been brought before him.

At the conclusion of the reading Al