hour,
sir," returned Powers, who was setting the coffee on the table.

"Humph! that hotly contested case of Cobham versus Hanley still in
progress, I suppose," said the judge.

At this moment Sam entered the breakfast room and laid a card on the
table before his master.

"Eh? 'Lieutenant Springald, U.S.A.' Who the mischief is he?" said the
judge, reading the name on the card.

"The gentleman, sir, says he has called to see you on particular
business," replied Sam.

"This is a pretty time to come on business! Show him up into my office,
Sam."

The servant withdrew to obey.

The judge addressed himself to his breakfast, and the conversation
turned upon the party of the preceding evening.

"I wonder what became of Burghe? He disappeared very early in the
evening," said Judge Merlin.

"I turned him out of doors," answered Claudia coolly.

The judge set down his coffee cup and stared at his daughter.

"He deserved it, papa! And nothing on earth but my sex prevented me from
giving him a thrashing as well as a discharge," said Claudia.

"What has he done?" inquired her father.

Claudia told him the whole.

"Well, my dear, you did right, though I am sorry that there should have
been any necessity for dismissing him. Degenerate son of a noble father,
will nothing reform him!" was the comment of the judge.

Mr. Brudenell, who was present, and had heard Claudia's account, was
reflecting bitterly upon the consequences of his own youthful fault of
haste, visited so heavily in unjust reproach upon the head of his
faultless son.

"Well!" said the judge, rising from the table, "now I will go and see
what the deuce is wanted of me by Lieutenant--Spring--Spring--Spring
chicken! or whatever his name is!"

He went upstairs and found seated in his office a beardless youth in
uniform, who arose and saluted him, saying, as he handed a folded note:

"I have the honor to be the bearer of a challenge, sir, from my friend
and superior officer, Captain Burghe."

"A--what?" demanded the judge, with a frown as black as a thunder-cloud
and a voice sharp as its clap, which made the little officer jump from
his feet.

"A challenge, sir!" repeated the latter, as soon as he had composed
himself.

"Why what the deuce do you mean by bringing a challenge to
_me_--breaking the law under the very nose of an officer of the law?"
said the judge, snatching the note and tearing it open. When he had read
it, he looked sternly at the m