ore to the damage and to the men, all but one. He got
off. Then Oldfield made a dry speech; and a tradesman he had prepared
offered bail. The magistrates were consulting, when in burst Mr.
Bassett all in black, and made a speech fifty times stronger than
Oldfield's, and sobbed, and told them the rioters had frightened his
wife so she had been prematurely confined, and the child was dead.
Could they take bail for a riot, a dastardly attack by a mob of cowards
on a poor defenseless woman, the gentlest and most inoffensive creature
in England? Then he went on: 'They were told I was not in the house;
and then they found courage to fling stones, to terrify my wife and
kill my child. Poor soul!' he said, 'she lies between life and death
herself: and I come here in an agony of fear, but I come for justice;
the man of straw, who offers bail, is furnished with the money by those
who stimulated the outrage. Defeat that fraud, and teach these cowards
who war on defenseless ladies that there is humanity and justice and
law in the land.' Then Oldfield tried to answer him with his hems and
his haws; but Bassett turned on him like a giant, and swept him away."

"Poor woman!"

"Ah! that is true: I am afraid I have thought too little of her. But
you suffer, and so must she. It is the most terrible feud; one would
think this was Corsica instead of England, only the fighting is not
done with daggers. But, after this, pray lean no more on that Oldfield.
We were all carried away at first; but, now I think of it, Bassett must
have been in the court, and held back to make the climax. Oh, yes! it
was another surprise and another success. They are all sent to jail.
Superior generalship! If Wheeler had been our man, we should have had
eight wives crying for pity, each with one child in her arms, and
another holding on to her apron. Do, pray, Lady Bassett, dismiss that
Nullity."

"Oh, I cannot do that; he is Sir Charles's lawyer; but I have promised
you to seek advice elsewhere, and so I will."

The conversation was interrupted by the tolling of the church-bell.

The first note startled Lady Bassett, and she turned pale.

"I must leave you," said Angelo, regretfully. "I have to bury Mr.
Bassett's little boy; he lived an hour."

Lady Bassett sat and heard the bell toll.

Strange, sad thoughts passed through her mind. "Is it saddest when it
tolls, or when it rings--that bell? He has killed his own child by
robbing me of my husband. We are