from his chair with
some dignity. "You speak of Mrs. Ballantyne, not for the first time, as
if she had been tried and condemned. In fact she was tried and
acquitted," and in his turn he appealed to Pettifer.

"Ask Robert!" he said.

But Pettifer was slow to answer, and when he did it was without
assurance.

"Ye-es," he replied with something of a drawl. "Undoubtedly Mrs.
Ballantyne was tried and acquitted"; and he left the impression on the
two who heard him that with acquittal quite the last word had not been
said. Mrs. Pettifer looked at him eagerly. She drew clear at once of
the dispute. She left the questions now to Harold Hazlewood, and
Pettifer had spoken with so much hesitation that Harold Hazlewood could
not but ask them.

"You are making reservations, Robert?"

Pettifer shrugged his shoulders.

"I think we have a right to know them," Hazlewood insisted. "You are a
solicitor with a great business and consequently a wide experience."

"Not of criminal cases, Hazlewood. I bring no more authority to judge
them than any other man."

"Still you have formed an opinion. Please let me have it," and Mr.
Hazlewood sat down again and crossed his knees. But a little impatience
was now audible in his voice.

"An opinion is too strong a word," replied Pettifer guardedly. "The
trial took place nearly eighteen months ago. I read the accounts of it
certainly day by day as I travelled in the train to London. But they were
summaries."

"Full summaries, Robert," said Hazlewood.

"No doubt. The trial made a great deal of noise in the world. But they
were not full enough for me. Even if my memory of those newspaper reports
were clear I should still hesitate to sit in judgment. But my memory
isn't clear. Let us see what I do remember."

Pettifer took a chair and sat for a few moments with his forehead
wrinkled in a frown. Was he really trying to remember? His wife asked
herself that question as she watched him. Or had he something to tell
them which he meant to let fall in his own cautiously careless way? Mrs.
Pettifer listened alertly.

"The--well--let us call it the catastrophe--took place in a tent in some
state of Rajputana."

"Yes," said Mr. Hazlewood.

"It took place at night. Mrs. Ballantyne was asleep in her bed. The man
Ballantyne was found outside the tent in the doorway."

"Yes."

Pettifer paused. "So many law cases have engaged my attention since,"
he said in apology for his hesitation. He seemed qu