, and escorted Barbara through the small hall, along
the passage to the house door; a courtesy probably not yet shown to any
client by Mr. Carlyle. The house door closed upon her, and Barbara had
taken one step from it, when something large loomed down upon her, like
a ship in full sail.

She must have been the tallest lady in the world--out of a caravan. A
fine woman in her day, but angular and bony now. Still, in spite of
the angles and the bones, there was majesty in the appearance of Miss
Carlyle.

"Why--what on earth!" began she, "have _you_ been with Archibald for?"

Barbara Hare, wishing Miss Carlyle over in Asia, stammered out the
excuse she had given Mr. Dill.

"Your mamma sent you on business! I never heard of such a thing. Twice
I have been to see Archibald, and twice did Dill answer that he was
engaged and must not be interrupted. I shall make old Dill explain his
meaning for observing a mystery over it to me."

"There is no mystery," answered Barbara, feeling quite sick lest Miss
Carlyle should proclaim there was, before the clerks, or her father.
"Mamma wanted Mr. Carlyle's opinion upon a little private business, and
not feeling well enough to come herself, she sent me."

Miss Carlyle did not believe a word. "What business?" asked she
unceremoniously.

"It is nothing that could interest you. A trifling matter, relating to a
little money. It's nothing, indeed."

"Then, if it's nothing, why were you closeted so long with Archibald?"

"He was asking the particulars," replied Barbara, recovering her
equanimity.

Miss Carlyle sniffed, as she invariably did, when dissenting from a
problem. She was sure there was some mystery astir. She turned and
walked down the street with Barbara, but she was none the more likely to
get anything out of her.

Mr. Carlyle returned to his room, deliberated a few moments, and then
rang his bell. A clerk answered it.

"Go to the Buck's Head. If Mr. Hare and the other magistrates are there,
ask them to step over to me."

The young man did as he was bid, and came back with the noted justices
at his heels. They obeyed the summons with alacrity, for they believed
they had got themselves into a judicial scrape, and that Mr. Carlyle
alone could get them out of it.

"I will not request you to sit down," began Mr. Carlyle, "for it is
barely a moment I shall detain you. The more I think about this
man's having been put in prison, the less I like it; and I have been
consid