" said he; "and as for that fellow
down in Yorkshire, I never liked him." To this Mat had answered that
neither did he like Mr. Mason; but as the case had about it some very
remarkable points, it was necessary to look into it; and then the
matter was allowed to stand over till after Christmas.

We will now change the scene to Noningsby, the judge's country
seat, near Alston, at which a party was assembled for the Christmas
holidays. The judge was there of course,--without his wig; in which
guise I am inclined to think that judges spend the more comfortable
hours of their existence; and there also was Lady Staveley, her
presence at home being altogether a matter of course, inasmuch as she
had no other home than Noningsby. For many years past, ever since the
happy day on which Noningsby had been acquired, she had repudiated
London; and the poor judge, when called upon by his duties to reside
there, was compelled to live like a bachelor, in lodgings. Lady
Staveley was a good, motherly, warm-hearted woman, who thought a
great deal about her flowers and fruit, believing that no one else
had them so excellent,--much also about her butter and eggs, which
in other houses were, in her opinion, generally unfit to be eaten;
she thought also a great deal about her children, who were all
swans,--though, as she often observed with a happy sigh, those of her
neighbours were so uncommonly like geese. But she thought most of
all of her husband, who in her eyes was the perfection of all manly
virtues. She had made up her mind that the position of a puisne judge
in England was the highest which could fall to the lot of any mere
mortal. To become a Lord Chancellor, or a Lord Chief Justice, or
a Chief Baron, a man must dabble with Parliament, politics, and
dirt; but the bench-fellows of these politicians were selected for
their wisdom, high conduct, knowledge, and discretion. Of all such
selections, that made by the late king when he chose her husband, was
the one which had done most honour to England, and had been in all
its results most beneficial to Englishmen. Such was her creed with
reference to domestic matters.

The Staveley young people at present were only two in number,
Augustus, namely, and his sister Madeline. The eldest daughter was
married, and therefore, though she spent these Christmas holidays at
Noningsby, must not be regarded as one of the Noningsby family. Of
Augustus we have said enough; but as I intend that Madeline