ormation by
asking questions--useless questions, repeated over and over again in
futile changes of words. The landlady was patient: she respected the
undisguised grief of the gentle modest old man; but she held to the
hard truth. The one possible answer was the answer which her servant had
already given. When she followed him out, to open the door, Mr. Gallilee
requested permission to wait a moment in the hall. "If you will allow
me, ma'am, I'll wipe my eyes before I go into the street."

Arriving at the office without an appointment, he found the lawyer
engaged. A clerk presented to him a slip of paper, with a line written
by Mr. Mool: "Is it anything of importance?" Simple Mr. Gallilee
wrote back: "Oh, dear, no; it's only me! I'll call again." Besides
his critical judgment in the matter of champagne, this excellent man
possessed another accomplishment--a beautiful handwriting. Mr. Mool,
discovering a crooked line and some ill-formed letters in the reply,
drew his own conclusions. He sent word to his old friend to wait.

In ten minutes more they were together, and the lawyer was informed of
the events that had followed the visit of Benjulia to Fairfield Gardens,
on the previous day.

For a while, the two men sat silently meditating--daunted by the
prospect before them. When the time came for speaking, they exercised an
influence over each other, of which both were alike unconscious. Out
of their common horror of Mrs. Gallilee's conduct, and their common
interest in Carmina, they innocently achieved between them the creation
of one resolute man.

"My dear Gallilee, this is a very serious thing."

"My dear Mool, I feel it so--or I shouldn't have disturbed you."

"Don't talk of disturbing me! I see so many complications ahead of us, I
hardly know where to begin."

"Just my case! It's a comfort to me that you feel it as I do."

Mr. Mool rose and tried walking up and down his room, as a means of
stimulating his ingenuity.

"There's this poor young lady," he resumed. "If she gets better--"

"Don't put it in that way!" Mr. Gallilee interposed. "It sounds as if
you doubted her ever getting well--you see it yourself in that light,
don't you? Be a little more positive, Mool, in mercy to me."

"By all means," Mr. Mool agreed. "Let us say, _when_ she gets better.
But the difficulty meets us, all the same. If Mrs. Gallilee claims her
right, what are we to do?"

Mr. Gallilee rose in his turn, and took a walk up and dow