I! It makes no difference to me what name I give her. Bother your
sentiment! let's go on with the facts. This is what the lawyer did
before the second trial came off. He told her she would be found guilty
_again_, to a dead certainty. 'And this time,' he said, 'the public will
let the law take its course. Have you got an old friend whom you can
trust?' She hadn't such a thing as an old friend in the world. 'Very
well, then,' says the lawyer, you must trust me. Sign this paper; and
you will have executed a fictitious sale of all your property to myself.
When the right time comes, I shall first carefully settle with your
husband's executors; and I shall then reconvey the money to you,
securing it properly (in case you ever marry again) in your own
possession. The Crown, in other transactions of this kind, frequently
waives its right of disputing the validity of the sale; and, if the
Crown is no harder on you than on other people, when you come out of
prison you will have your five thousand pounds to begin the world with
again.' Neat of the lawyer, when she was going to be tried for robbing
the executors, to put her up to a way of robbing the Crown, wasn't it?
Ha! ha! what a world it is!"

The last effort of the son's sarcasm passed unheeded by the father. "In
prison!" he said to himself. "Oh me, after all that misery, in prison
again!"

"Yes," said Bashwood the younger, rising and stretching himself, "that's
how it ended. The verdict was Guilty; and the sentence was imprisonment
for two years. She served her time; and came out, as well as I can
reckon it, about three years since. If you want to know what she did
when she recovered her liberty, and how she went on afterward, I may be
able to tell you something about it--say, on another occasion, when you
have got an extra note or two in your pocket-book. For the present, all
you need know, you do know. There isn't the shadow of a doubt that this
fascinating lady has the double slur on her of having been found guilty
of murder, and of having served her term of imprisonment for theft.
There's your money's worth for your money--with the whole of my
wonderful knack at stating a case clearly, thrown in for nothing. If you
have any gratitude in you, you ought to do something handsome, one of
these days, for your son. But for me, I'll tell you what you would have
done, old gentleman. If you could have had your own way, you would have
married Miss Gwilt."

Mr. Bashwood rose to