bond for the vast sum declared in your
letter. In a word, though the name subscribed to the bond be that of
Bedlington, it was not the Marquess' hand that set it there. Who hath
done you this injury, I know not, but Time hath shown that his
lordship's twin brother, Lord Stephen Rome, lately decd., with whom the
Marquess was justly at variance, more than once scrupled not to assume
his brother's person and title to compass his own ends...._

At the mention of the twin brother, Mr. Justice Molehill raised his
keen grey eyes to stare at the lamp.

"Rome," he said softly. "Rome. That's right. It was at the _Grand
Hotel_. And Anthony Lyveden was the name of the sole legatee. I knew
I'd heard it before."

* * * * *

Mrs. Bumble's parlourmaid was counting upon her pink fingers.

"Sunday twenty-eight, Monday twenty-nine, to-day thirty.... Yes.
To-morrow's the first of December."

George Alison regarded his wife.

"Let us hope," he said gloomily, "that it's a better month. In the
course of the last four weeks I've had seventeen punctures, I've
endured a miscarriage of justice which has undoubtedly shortened my
life, and I've lost as good a pal as ever I struck."

"To hear you speak," said Betty, "any one would think that Anne and I
had enjoyed ourselves. It's been just as bad for us."

The chauffeur shook his head.

"You rave," he said shortly. "In the first place, what have you to do
with tires?"

"If we haven't had the punctures," was the reply, "we've heard enough
about them."

"Yes," said Anne. "It's been almost as bad as golf. 'What I did at
the fourteenth hole.'"

"In the second place," said George, "women adore irregularity. I can
conceive nothing more delectable to the feminine appetite than the
spectacle of Justice derailed. The apotheosis of our esteemed friend
and late colleague, Mr. Albert Morgan, has afforded you two more
indirect gratification than anything I can remember."

"Gratification?" almost screamed the two girls.

"Gratification," said George. "If I'd come home and said he'd pleaded
guilty and been sent down for five years, you'd have been all
depressed. In the third place----"

"Monstrous," said Betty. "Don't laugh, Anne. As if the very thought
of that man walking about free didn't make my blood boil."

"It made it run cold last time," observed her husband. "Same principle
as a geyser, I suppose.... Well, as I was saying, in the third