d?" replied the Justice.

"By sight; I am not well acquaint with him."

"Is he not an hard man, scarce well liked?" said his sister.

"True enough, as you shall say ere my tale come to an end. This Benden
hath a wife--a decent Woman enough, as all men do confess, save that she
is bitten somewhat by certain heretical notions that the priest cannot
win her to lay by; will not come to mass, and so forth; but in all other
fashions of good repute: and what doth this brute her husband but go
himself to the Bishop, and beg--I do ensure you, beg his Lordship that
this his wife may be arrest and lodged in prison. And in prison she is,
and hath so been now these three or four months, on the sworn
information of her own husband. 'Tis monstrous!"

"Truly, most shocking!" said Mistress Grena, cutting up the round of
beef. The lady of the house always did the carving.

"Ah! As saith the old proverb: `There is no worse pestilence than a
familiar enemy,'" quoted the host.

"Well!" continued the Justice, with an amused look: "but now cometh a
good jest, whereof I heard but yester-even. This Mistress Benden hath
two brothers, named Hall--Roger and Thomas--one of whom dwelleth at
Frittenden, and the other at yon corner house in Staplehurst, nigh to
the Second Acre Close. Why, to be sure, he is your manager--that had I
forgot."

Mr Roberts nodded. Pandora had pricked up her ears at the name of
Hall, and now began to listen intently. Mistress Benden, of whom she
heard for the first time, must be an aunt of her _protegee_, little
Christabel.

"This Thomas Hall hath a wife, by name Tabitha, that the lads hereabout
call Tabby, and by all accounts a right cat with claws is she. She, I
hear, went up to Briton's Mead a two-three days gone, or maybe something
more, and gave good Master Benden a taste of her horsewhip, that he hath
since kept his bed--rather, I take it, from sulkiness than soreness, yet
I dare be bound she handled him neatly. Tabitha is a woman of strong
build, and lithe belike, that I would as lief not be horsewhipped by.
Howbeit, what shall come thereof know I not. Very like she thought it
should serve to move him to set Mistress Alice free: but she may find,
and he belike, that 'tis easier to set a stone a-rolling down the hill
than to stay it. The matter is now in my Lord of Dover's hands; and
without Mistress Tabitha try her whip on him--"

Both gentlemen laughed. Pandora was deeply interested, as she r