bribe."

"Could you?" asked Jemima, for the conversation took place at Mr
Bradshaw's dinner-table, where a few friends were gathered together
to meet Mr Hickson; and among them was Mr Benson.

"We neither would nor could," said the ardent barrister, disregarding
in his vehemence the point of the question, and floating on over the
bar of argument into the wide ocean of his own eloquence: "As it
is--as the world stands, they who would succeed even in good deeds
must come down to the level of expediency; and therefore, I say once
more, if Mr Donne is the man for your purpose, and your purpose is
a good one, a lofty one, a holy one" (for Mr Hickson remembered the
Dissenting character of his little audience, and privately considered
the introduction of the word "holy" a most happy hit), "then, I say,
we must put all the squeamish scruples which might befit Utopia, or
some such place, on one side, and treat men as they are. If they are
avaricious, it is not we who have made them so; but as we have to
do with them, we must consider their failings in dealing with them;
if they have been careless or extravagant, or have had their little
peccadillos, we must administer the screw. The glorious reform of the
law will justify, in my idea, all means to obtain the end--that law,
from the profession of which I have withdrawn myself from perhaps a
too scrupulous conscience!" he concluded softly to himself.

"We are not to do evil that good may come," said Mr Benson. He was
startled at the deep sound of his own voice as he uttered these
words; but he had not been speaking for some time, and his voice came
forth strong and unmodulated.

"True, sir; most true," said Mr Hickson, bowing. "I honour you for
the observation." And he profited by it, insomuch that he confined
his further remarks on elections to the end of the table, where
he sat near Mr Bradshaw, and one or two equally eager, though not
equally influential partisans of Mr Donne's. Meanwhile, Mr Farquhar
took up Mr Benson's quotation, at the end where he and Jemima sat
near to Mrs Bradshaw and him.

"But in the present state of the world, as Mr Hickson says, it is
rather difficult to act upon that precept."

"Oh, Mr Farquhar!" said Jemima, indignantly, the tears springing to
her eyes with a feeling of disappointment. For she had been chafing
under all that Mr Hickson had been saying, perhaps the more for one
or two attempts on his part at a flirtation with the daughter of