you bethink
you that if your wife be brought afore me as Justice, I must deal with
her according to law. You know, moreover, that in case she shall admit
her guilt, and refuse to amend, there is no course open to me save to
commit her to prison: and you know, I suppose, what the end of that may
be. Consider well if you are avised to go through with it. A man need
count the cost of building an house ere he layeth in a load of bricks."

"You are not wont, Master Justice, to be thus tender over women," said
Benden derisively. "Methinks ere now I have heard you to thank the
saints you never wedded one."

"And may do so yet again, Master Benden. I covet little to have a wife
to look after."

Like many men in his day, Mr Roberts looked upon a wife not as somebody
who would look after him, in the sense of making him comfortable, but
rather as one whom he would have the trouble of perpetually keeping out
of all sorts of ways that were naughty and wrong.

"But that is not your case," he continued in the same stern tone. "You
set to-night--if you resolve to persevere therein--a ball rolling that
may not tarry till it reach the fire. Are you avised thereon?"

"I am. Do your duty!" was the savage reply.

"Then do you yours," said Mr Roberts coldly, "and bring Mrs Benden
before me next sessions day. There is time to forethink you ere it
come."

Unconscious of the storm thus lowering over her, Alice Benden was
sitting by little Christie's sofa. There were then few playthings, and
no children's books, and other books were scarce and costly. Fifty
volumes was considered a large library, and in few houses even of
educated people were there more books than about half-a-dozen. For an
invalid confined to bed or sofa, whether child or adult, there was
little resource save needlework. Alice had come to bring her little
niece a roll of canvas and some bright-coloured silks. Having so much
time to spare, and so little variety of occupation, Christie was a more
skilful embroideress than many older women. A new pattern was a great
pleasure, and there were few pleasures open to the invalid and lonely
child. Her sole home company was her father, for their one servant,
Nell, was too busy, with the whole work of the house upon her hands, to
do more for Christabel than necessity required; and Mr Hall, who was
manager of one of the large factories in Cranbrook, was obliged to be
away nearly the whole day. Other company--her A