ast, though I do get beaten."
"How lovely his wife is," observed Mr. Drake, his admiring eyes cast up
at Barbara. "I say, Levison, was the first one as charming?"
Sir Francis looked perfectly savage; the allusion did not please
him. But, ere another word could be spoken, some one in the garb of a
policeman, who had wound his way through the crowd, laid his hand upon
the baronet.
"Sir Francis Levison, you are my prisoner."
Nothing worse than _debt_ occurred at that moment to the mind of Sir
Francis. But that was quite enough, and he turned purple with rage.
"Your hands off, vermin! How dare you?"
A quick movement, a slight click, a hustle from the wondering crowd more
immediately around, and the handcuffs were on. Utter amazement
alone prevented Mr. Drake from knocking down the policeman. A dozen
vituperating tongues assailed him.
"I'm sorry to do it in this public place and manner," spoke the officer,
partly to Sir Francis, partly to the gentlemen around, "but I couldn't
come across you last night, do as I would. And the warrant has been in
my hands since five o'clock yesterday afternoon. Sir Francis Levison, I
arrest you for the wilful murder of George Hallijohn."
The crowd fell back; the crowd was paralyzed with consternation; the
word was passed from one extreme to the other, and back and across
again, and the excitement grew high. The ladies looking from Miss
Carlyle's windows saw what had happened, though they could not divine
the cause. Some of them turned pale at sight of the handcuffs, and Mary
Pinner, an excitable girl, fell into a screaming fit.
Pale! What was their gentle paleness compared with the frightfully livid
one of Francis Levison? His agitation was pitiable to witness, his face
a terror to look upon; once or twice he gasped, as if in an agony; and
then his eyes happened to fall on Otway Bethel, who stood near. Shorn
of his adornments--which might not be thought adornments upon paper--the
following was the sentence that burst involuntarily from his lips,--
"You hound! It is you who have done this!"
"No! by--" Whether Mr. Otway Bethel was about to swear by Jupiter or
Juno never was decided, the sentence being cut ignominiously short at
the above two words. Another policeman, in the summary manner exercised
towards Sir Francis, had clapped a pair of handcuffs upon _him_.
"Mr. Otway Bethel, I arrest you as an accomplice in the murder of George
Hallijohn."
You may be sure that
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