able. Yet somehow it struck me that the
atmosphere in Court was not, as usual, merely stuffy, but electrical;
that the faces of our old and tried constabulary twitched with some
suppressed excitement; and that the Clerk was fidgeting with an
attack of nerves.

'Certain supplementary cases, your Worship,' said he, taking a small
sheaf of papers from the hands of his underling, 'too late to be
included on the charge-sheet issued.'

'Eh?--Oh, certainly--certainly!' Sir Felix drew his spectacle case
from his waistcoat pocket and laid it on the table; took the paper
handed to him, and slipped it methodically beneath the sheet of
agenda; resumed the business of extracting his spectacles, adjusted
them, and gravely opened business.

He had it all to himself. For me, as I, too, received the paper of
supplementary cases, my first thought was of simple astonishment at
the length of the list. Then my gaze stiffened upon certain names,
and by degrees as I recognised them, my whole body grew rigid in my
chair. Samuel Sleeman--this was the Superintendent's name--appellant
against Isaac Adamson, drunk and disorderly; Ditto against Duncan
McPhae, drunk and disorderly; Ditto against Henry James Walters,
drunk and disorderly; Ditto against Selina Mary Wilkins, drunk on
licensed premises; Ditto against Mary Curtis, drunk on licensed
premises; Ditto against Solomon Tregaskis, drunk on highway. . . .
There were no less than twenty-four names on the list; and each was
the name of a retainer or pensioner of Sir Felix--those aged
Arcadians of Kirris-vean.

I glanced along the table and winced as I met Sir Felix's eyes.
He was inclining towards me. 'Five shillings and costs will meet
this case, eh?' he was asking. I nodded, though without a notion of
what case we were hearing. (It turned out to be one of
cattle-straying, so no great harm was done.) Beyond him I saw Lord
Rattley covering an infernally wicked grin with his arched palm;
beyond Lord Rattley two estimable magistrates staring at that fatal
supplementary paper as though they had dined and this was a bill they
found themselves wholly unable to meet.

Sir Felix from time to time finds his awards of justice gently
disputed. No one disputed them to-day. Lord Rattley, whose language
is younger than his years, declared afterwards--between explosions of
indecent mirth--that we left the floor to the old man, and he
waltzed. He fined three parents for not sending their child