smiting the point
of his cane with a vehement stab upon the pavement, for having forgotten
to speak to Lowe upon her case. Perhaps, however, it was as well he had
not, inasmuch as there were a few not unimportant facts connected with
that case about which he was himself in the dark.

Mr. Gamble's conducting clerk had gone up stairs to Mrs. Nutter's door,
and being admitted, had very respectfully asked leave to open, for that
lady's instruction, a little statement which he was charged to make.

This was in substance, that Archibald Duncan, Mary Matchwell's husband,
was in Dublin, and had sworn informations against her for bigamy; and
that a warrant having been issued for her arrest upon that charge, the
constables had arrived at the Mills for the purpose of executing it, and
removing the body of the delinquent, M. M., to the custody of the
turnkey; that measures would be taken on the spot to expel the persons
who had followed in her train; and that Mr. Charles Nutter himself would
arrive in little more than an hour, to congratulate his good wife,
Sally, on the termination of their troubles, and to take quiet
possession of his house.

You can imagine how Sally Nutter received all this, with clasped hands
and streaming eyes, looking in the face of the man of notices and
attested copies, unable to speak--unable quite to believe. But before he
came to the end of his dry and delightful narrative, a loud yell and a
scuffle in the parlour were heard; a shrilly clamour of warring voices;
a dreadful crash of glass: a few curses and oaths in basses and
barytones; and some laughter from the coachmen, who viewed the fray
from outside through the window; and a brief, wild, and garrulous
uproar, which made little Sally Nutter--though by this time used to
commotion--draw back with her hands to her heart, and hold her breath.
It was the critical convulsion; the evil spirit was being eliminated,
and the tenement, stunned, bruised, and tattered, about to be at peace.

Of Charles Nutter's doings and adventures during the terrible interval
between his departure on the night of Mary Matchwell's first visit to
the Mills, and his return on this evening to the same abode, there is a
brief outline, in the first person, partly in answer to questions, and
obviously intended to constitute a memorandum for his attorney's use. I
shall reprint it with your leave--as it is not very long--verbatim.

'When that woman, Sir, came out to the Mills,' say