an't last, and time will show the rest.
He'll go--and all who stick to him. Well, I've said too much. Have you
heard the news? But of course you have, Ministers hear everything."

"What news?"

"The Chief Justice thinks of resigning: he told me himself that he had
spoken to Medland about it, and Medland had asked him to wait a little."

"What for?"

"Oh, Medland wants to get hold of a good man from England, I understood.
He thinks nobody here equal to it."

"Complimentary to my profession out here."

"I know. I wonder at Medland: he's generally so strong on 'Lindsey for
the Lindseians,' as he once said. In this matter he and Perry seem to
have changed places."

"Really? Then Sir Robert----?"

"Yes, he's quite anxious to have one of ourselves. I must say I heartily
agree, and of course it could easily be managed, if Medland liked. Perry
would do it in a minute. I really don't see why the best berth in the
colony is to be handed over to some hungry failure from London. But no
doubt you'll agree with Medland."

"Oh, I don't know," said Coxon. "It seems to me rather a point where the
Bar here ought to assert itself."

"I know, if we were in and had a fit man, we should hear nothing more of
an importation. The best man in the colony would be glad to have it: of
course there's not the power a Minister has, or the interest of active
political life, but it's well paid, very dignified, and, above all,
permanent."

Now neither Kilshaw nor Coxon were dull men, and by this time they very
well understood one another. They knew what they meant just as well as
though they had been indecent enough to say it. "Help us to turn out
Medland, and you shall be Chief Justice," said Kilshaw, in the name of
Sir Robert Perry,--"Chief Justice, and once more a _persona grata_ at
Government House." Chief Justice! Soon, perhaps, Sir Alfred! Would not
that soften the Eynesford heart? Mr. Coxon honestly thought it would.
The subtleties of English rank are not to be apprehended by a mere four
years' visit to our shores.

"We expect Sir John to go on for a couple of months or so," Kilshaw
continued. "I don't think he'll stay longer."

"Perhaps we shall be out by then."

"Not as things stand, I'm afraid," and Kilshaw shook his head. "Now if
we could get you, Medland would be out in three weeks."

"I must do what I think right."

"My dear Coxon! Of course!"

Mr. Kilshaw returned to his office well pleased. A careful computation
show