nox.

"I'll look after you," he said reassuringly. "Trust me for that, my
dear."

Lola did trust him. In fact, she trusted him to such an extent that,
on reaching London, she stopped with him at the Imperial Hotel in
Covent Garden; and then, when the manageress of that establishment
took upon herself to make pointed criticisms, at his rooms in Pall
Mall.

Naturally enough, this sort of thing could not be hushed up for long.
Meaning nods and winks greeted the dashing Lennox when he appeared at
his club. Tongues wagged briskly. Some of them even wagged in distant
Calcutta, where they were heard by Lola's husband. Ignoring his own
amorous dalliance with a brother officer's spouse, he elected to feel
injured. Resolved to assert himself, he got into touch with his London
solicitors and instructed them to take the preliminary steps to
dissolve his marriage. The first of these was to bring an action for
what was then politely dubbed "crim. con." against the man he alleged
to have "wronged" him.

The lawyers would not be hurried; and things moved in leisurely
fashion. Still, they moved to their appointed end; and, the necessary
red tape being unwound, interrogatories administered, and the evidence
of prying chambermaids and hotel servants collected and examined, in
May, 1841, the case of James v. Lennox got into the list and was heard
by Lord Denman and a special jury in the Court of Queen's Bench. Sir
William Follett, the Solicitor-General, was briefed on behalf of the
plaintiff, and Frederick Thesiger appeared for Captain Lennox.

In his opening address, Sir William Follett (who had not been too well
instructed) told the jury that the petitioner and his wife "had lived
very happily together in India, and that the return of Mrs. James to
England was due to a fall from her horse at Calcutta." While on the
passage home, he continued, pulling out his _vox humana_ stop, the
ship touched at Madras, where the defendant came on board; and,
"during the long voyage, an intimacy sprang up between Mrs. James and
himself which developed in a fashion that left the outraged husband no
choice but to institute the present proceedings to recover damages for
having been wantonly robbed of the affection and society of his
consort."

At this point, counsel for Captain Lennox (who, in pusillanimous
fashion, had loved and sailed away, rather than stop and help the
woman he had compromised) cut short his learned friend's tearful
eloquence b