"

"Of course; of course."

"But if there is--"

"I think there will be nothing of the sort," said Mr. Furnival,
leaving his seat as he spoke.

"But if there is--I shall have your aid?" and she slowly rose from
her chair as she spoke.

Mr. Furnival gave her a promise of this, as Sir Peregrine had done
before; and then with her handkerchief to her eyes she thanked him.
Her tears were not false as Mr. Furnival well saw; and seeing that
she wept, and seeing that she was beautiful, and feeling that in her
grief and in her beauty she had come to him for aid, his heart was
softened towards her, and he put out his arms as though he would take
her to his heart--as a daughter. "Dearest friend," he said, "trust me
that no harm shall come to you."

"I will trust you," she said, gently stopping the motion of his arm.
"I will trust you, altogether. And when you have seen Mr. Round,
shall I hear from you?"

At this moment, as they were standing close together, the door
opened, and Mr. Crabwitz introduced another lady--who indeed had
advanced so quickly towards the door of Mr. Furnival's room, that the
clerk had been hardly able to reach it before her.

"Mrs. Furnival, if you please, sir," said Mr. Crabwitz.

CHAPTER XIII

GUILTY, OR NOT GUILTY

Unfortunately for Mr. Furnival, the intruder was Mrs.
Furnival--whether he pleased or whether he did not please. There
she was in his law chamber, present in the flesh, a sight pleasing
neither to her husband nor to her husband's client. She had knocked
at the outside door, which, in the absence of the fag, had been
opened by Mr. Crabwitz, and had immediately walked across the passage
towards her husband's room, expressing her knowledge that Mr.
Furnival was within. Mr. Crabwitz had all the will in the world to
stop her progress, but he found that he lacked the power to stay it
for a moment.

The advantages of matrimony are many and great,--so many and so
great, that all men, doubtless, ought to marry. But even matrimony
may have its drawbacks; among which unconcealed and undeserved
jealousy on the part of the wife is perhaps as disagreeable as any.
What is a man to do when he is accused before the world,--before
any small fraction of the world, of making love to some lady of his
acquaintance? What is he to say? What way is he to look? "My love, I
didn't. I never did, and wouldn't think of it for worlds. I say it
with my hand on my heart. There is Mrs. Jones herself,