he
should have fortified himself with strongest resolves, he would be
unable to hide his guilty knowledge. He knew that of himself. He
would be sure to give testimony against himself, on the strength of
which he would be dragged from the witness-box to the dock.

He declared to himself that, let the newspaper say what it would,
he would not of his own motion throw himself among the lion's teeth
which were prepared for him. But in so resolving he did not know
what further external force might be applied to him. When the old
tenant had sternly told him that he should go like a man into the
witness-box and tell his own story on his oath, that had been hard
to bear. But there came worse than that,--a power more difficult to
resist. On the following morning Mr Apjohn arrived at Llanfeare,
having driven himself over from Carmarthen, and was at once shown
into the book-room. The lawyer was a man who, by his friends and by
his clients in general, was considered to be a pleasant fellow as
well as a cautious man of business. He was good at a dinner-table,
serviceable with a gun, and always happy on horseback. He could
catch a fish, and was known to be partial to a rubber at whist. He
certainly was not regarded as a hard or cruel man. But Cousin Henry,
in looking at him, had always seen a sternness in his eye, some curve
of a frown upon his brow, which had been uncomfortable to him. From
the beginning of their intercourse he had been afraid of the lawyer.
He had felt that he was looked into and scrutinised, and found to
be wanting. Mr Apjohn had, of course, been on Isabel's side. All
Carmarthenshire knew that he had done his best to induce the old
squire to maintain Isabel as his heiress. Cousin Henry was well aware
of that. But still why had this attorney always looked at him with
accusing eyes? When he had signed that declaration at Carmarthen, the
attorney had shown by his face that he believed the declaration to be
false. And now this man was there, and there was nothing for him but
to endure his questions.

"Mr Jones," said the lawyer, "I have thought it my duty to call upon
you in respect to these articles in the _Carmarthen Herald_."

"I cannot help what the _Carmarthen Herald_ may say."

"But you can, Mr Jones. That is just it. There are laws which enable
a man to stop libels and to punish them if it be worth his while
to do so." He paused a moment, but Cousin Henry was silent, and he
continued, "For many years I was