ere is very little doubt about it; they are sure to want
to know about his son's general conduct, though possibly the testimony
on that point of the constable at Reigate will be sufficient. My own
hope is that he will get a long sentence; at any rate, one long enough
to insure his not coming back during his father's lifetime. If you had
seen his manner when we were talking to him yesterday, you would believe
that he is capable of anything. I have had a good many bad characters
before me during the year and a half that I have sat upon the bench, but
I am bound to say that I never saw one who was to my eyes so thoroughly
evil as this young fellow. I don't think," he added with a smile, "that
I should feel quite comfortable myself if he were acquitted; it will
be a long time before I shall forget the expression of his face when
he said to me this morning, 'You will repent this night's work,
Thorndyke.'"

"You don't mean that you think he would do you any harm, Mr. Thorndyke?"

"Well, I should not care to meet him in a lonely place if he was armed
and I was not. But you need not be nervous, Mrs. Cunningham, there is
not the smallest chance of his being out for years; and by that time his
blood will have had time to cool down, and he will have learnt, at any
rate, that crimes cannot be committed in this country with impunity."

"It is all very shocking," the lady said. "What will poor Mr. Bastow do?
I should think that he would not like to remain as clergyman here, where
everyone knows about it."

"That must be for him to decide," the Squire said; "but if he wishes to
resign I certainly shall not press him to continue to hold the living.
He is a very old friend of mine. My father presented the living to him
when I was nine or ten years old, and I may say I saw him daily up to
the time when I went down into Sussex. If he resigns I should urge him
to take up his residence here and to act as Mark's tutor; and he might
also relieve you of some of Millicent's lessons. You have plenty to do
in looking after the management of things in general. However, that is
for the future."

At eleven o'clock the Squire drove down to Reigate, taking Mark with
him, as it would save all trouble about putting up the horse and pony.
On arriving he handed Mark over to the head constable, and asked him to
pass him into a seat in the courthouse, before the public were let in.

Reigate was in a state of unusual excitement. That the coach should ha