l foot into it
with a splash.

The visitors were in the act of emerging from the front door, Mrs.
Bumble was dropping the second of three tremulous curtsies, and Mr.
Bumble was offering the stirrup-cup of humble duty, when the terrier
emerged from some laurels and, recognizing Valerie, rushed delightedly
to her side. Before she was aware of his presence, he was leaping to
lick her face....

To disregard such unaffected benevolence would have been worse than
churlish, and Valerie stooped to the Sealyham and gave him her cheek.
Patch lay down on his back and put his legs in the air. His tail was
going, and there was a shy invitation in the bright brown eyes which
was irresistible. Valerie hesitated. Then, on a sudden impulse, she
picked up the little white dog and held him close.

"Good-bye, Patch," she whispered. "Good-bye."

She kissed the rough white head and put him down tenderly. Then she
stepped into the car with a quivering lip.

It was as the car was turning out of the drive that she burst into
tears....

Such consolation as Lady Touchstone sought to administer was gently but
firmly declined: and, since her niece would have none of it, neither,
gentlemen, shall you.

It was a few hours later--to be exact, at a quarter before ten
o'clock--that a gentleman of some distinction laid down _The Times_.

For a moment or two he sat still, looking into the fire. Then he
picked up a pile of depositions and drew a pencil-case from his pocket.
For a while the occasional flick of a page argued his awful attention
to the recital of crime: then the keen grey eyes slid back to the
glowing coals, and the longhand went by the board. It was evident that
there was some extraneous matter soliciting his lordship's regard, and
in some sort gaining the same because of its importunity.

Mr. Justice Molehill was all alone. He had sent his marshal to the
cinema, "lest the boy should grow dull," and, except for the servants,
somewhere below stairs, the great gaunt mansion used as the Judge's
Lodging, lodged for the nonce no other inmate.

The room in which the Judge sat was enormous. Indeed, the shaded lamp,
set upon a table close to his shoulder, did little more than insist
upon the depths of the chamber, which to illumine effectively you would
have needed a score of lamps slung from the ceiling. For all its size,
however, the room was sparsely furnished. At the far end a huge carved
writing-table loomed out of the