ay, or his strength to be broken down.

He went up to the house again on the Wednesday, and again on the
Thursday,--but nothing had been heard from the Squire. The bailiff
was very unhappy. Even though there might come a cheque on the
Saturday morning, which both Fenwick and the bailiff thought to be
probable, still there would be grave difficulties.

"Here'll be the first of September on us afore we know where we are,"
said the bailiff, "and is we to go on with the horses?"

For the Squire was of all men the most regular, and began to get
his horses into condition on the first of September as regularly as
he began to shoot partridges. The Vicar went home and then made up
his mind that he would go up to London after his friend. He must
provide for his next Sunday's duty, but he could do that out of a
neighbouring parish, and he would start on the morrow. He arranged
the matter with his wife and with his friend's curate, and on the
Friday he started.

He drove himself into Salisbury instead of to the Bullhampton Road
station in order that he might travel by the express train. That at
least was the reason which he gave to himself and to his wife. But
there was present to his mind the idea that he might look into the
court and see how the trial was going on. Poor Carry Brattle would
have a bad time of it beneath a lawyer's claws. Such a one as Carry,
of the evil of whose past life there was no doubt, and who would
appear as a witness against a man whom she had once been engaged to
marry, would certainly meet with no mercy from a cross-examining
barrister. The broad landmarks between the respectable and the
disreputable may guide the tone of a lawyer somewhat, when he has a
witness in his power; but the finer lines which separate that which
is at the moment good and true from that which is false and bad
cannot be discerned amidst the turmoil of a trial, unless the eyes,
and the ears, and the inner touch of him who has the handling of the
victim be of a quality more than ordinarily high.

The Vicar drove himself over to Salisbury and had an hour there for
strolling into the court. He had heard on the previous day that the
case would be brought on the first thing on the Friday, and it was
half-past eleven when he made his way in through the crowd. The train
by which he was to be taken on to London did not start till half-past
twelve. At that moment the court was occupied in deciding whether
a certain tradesman, living a