nk much of it," said Mrs. Orme. "If I were
you, I would strive to forget it."

"I do strive," said the other; and then she took the hand which Mrs.
Orme had stretched out to her, and that lady got up and kissed her.

"Dearest friend," said Mrs. Orme, "if we can comfort you we will."
And then they sobbed in each other's arms.

In the mean time Sir Peregrine was sitting alone, thinking. He sat
thinking, with his glass of claret untouched by his side, and with
the biscuit which he had taken lying untouched upon the table. As he
sat he had raised one leg upon the other, placing his foot on his
knee, and he held it there with his hand upon his instep. And so he
sat without moving for some quarter of an hour, trying to use all
his mind on the subject which occupied it. At last he roused himself,
almost with a start, and leaving his chair, walked three or four
times the length of the room. "Why should I not?" at last he said to
himself, stopping suddenly and placing his hand upon the table. "Why
should I not, if it pleases me? It shall not injure him--nor her."
And then he walked again. "But I will ask Edith," he said, still
speaking to himself. "If she says that she disapproves of it, I will
not do it." And then he left the room, while the wine still remained
untasted on the table.

On the day following Christmas Mr. Furnival went up to town, and Mr.
Round junior,--Mat Round, as he was called in the profession,--came
to him at his chambers. A promise had been made to the barrister by
Round and Crook that no active steps should be taken against Lady
Mason on the part of Joseph Mason of Groby, without notice being
given to Mr. Furnival. And this visit by appointment was made in
consequence of that promise.

"You see," said Matthew Round, when that visit was nearly brought to
a close, "that we are pressed very hard to go on with this, and if we
do not, somebody else will."

"Nevertheless, if I were you, I should decline," said Mr. Furnival.

"You're looking to your client, not to ours, sir," said the attorney.
"The fact is that the whole case is very queer. It was proved on the
last trial that Bolster and Kenneby were witnesses to a deed on the
14th of July, and that was all that was proved. Now we can prove that
they were on that day witnesses to another deed. Were they witnesses
to two?"

"Why should they not be?"

"That is for us to see. We have written to them both to come up to
us, and in order that we might be