he was speaking the truth when he told Mr Walker that the lady had
promised to marry him. Men who can succeed in deceiving no one else
will succeed at last in deceiving themselves. But the lawyer told
him, repeating the fact over and over again, that the thing was
impracticable; that there was no means of carrying the matter so
far that Sir John Ball should be made to appear in a witness box.
Everything that Sir John had done he had done legally; and even at
that moment of the discussion between Mr Walker and Mr Maguire, the
question of the ownership of the property was being tried before a
proper tribunal in London. Mr Maguire still thought Mr Walker to be
wrong,--thought that his attorney was a weak and ignorant man; but he
acknowledged to himself the fact that he in his unhappy position was
unable to get any more cunning attorney to take the matter in hand.

But the _Christian Examiner_ still remained to him, and that he used
with diligence. From week to week there appeared in it articles
attacking the lion, stating that the lion was still being watched,
that his prey would be snatched from him at last, that the lamb
should even yet have her rights, and the like. And as the thing
went on, the periodical itself and the writer of the article became
courageous by habit, till things were printed which Sir John Ball
found it almost impossible to bear. It was declared that he was going
to desert the lamb, now that he had taken all the lamb's property;
and that the lamb, shorn of all her fleece, was to be condemned
to earn her bread as a common nurse in the wards of a common
hospital,--all which information came readily enough to Mr Maguire by
the hands of Miss Colza. The papers containing these articles were
always sent to Sir John Ball and to Miss Mackenzie, and the articles
were always headed, "The Lion and the Lamb." Miss Mackenzie, in
accordance with an arrangement made to that purpose, sent the papers
as soon as they came to Mr Slow, but Sir John Ball had no such ready
way of freeing himself from their burden. He groaned and toiled
under them, going to his lawyer with them, and imploring permission
to bring an action for libel against Mr Maguire. The venom of the
unclean animal's sting had gone so deep into him, that, fond as he
was of money, he had told his lawyer that he would not begrudge the
expense if he could only punish the man who was hurting him. But the
attorney, who understood something of feeling as well