who is positively so good
would be impossible. But do you feel more kindly to him than you
used?"

"Janet," said Mary, after pausing awhile, "you had better leave me
alone. Don't be angry with me; but really it will be better that you
should leave me alone."

"I won't be angry with you, and I will leave you alone," said Mrs.
Fenwick. And, as she considered this request afterwards, it seemed to
her that the very making of such a request implied a determination on
the girl's part to bring herself to accept the man's offer,--if it
might be possible.

CHAPTER XLIX.

MARY LOWTHER'S DOOM.

The police were so very tedious in managing their business, and
the whole affair of the second magisterial investigation was so
protracted, that people in the neighbourhood became almost tired of
it, in spite of that appetite for excitement which the ordinary quiet
life of a rural district produces. On the first Tuesday in June Sam
had surrendered himself at Heytesbury, and on the second Tuesday it
was understood that the production of the prisoners was only formal.
The final examination, and committal, if the evidence should be
sufficient, was to take place on the third Tuesday in the month.
Against this Mr. Jones had remonstrated very loudly on Sam's behalf,
protesting that the magistrates were going beyond their power in
locking up a man against whom there was no more evidence now than
there had been when before they had found themselves compelled to
release him on bail. But this was of no avail. Sam had been released
before because the men who were supposed to have been his accomplices
were not in custody; and now that they were in custody the police
declared it to be out of the question that he should be left at
large. The magistrates of course agreed with the police, in spite of
the indignation of Mr. Jones. In the meantime a subpoena was served
upon Carry Brattle to appear on that final Tuesday,--Tuesday the
nineteenth of June. The policeman, when he served her with the paper,
told her that on the morning in question he would come and fetch her.
The poor girl said not a word as she took into her hand the dreadful
document. Mrs. Stiggs asked a question or two of the man, but
got from him no information. But it was well known in Trotter's
Buildings, and round about the Three Honest Men, that Sam Brattle was
to be tried for the murder of Mr. Trumbull, and public opinion in
that part of Salisbury was adverse to Sam. Publ