to take in anybody. If being advised by me means
persistently declining to do what I suggest and recommend----"

"Oh, then, you are of the same opinion as I am!" said Lady Mariamne.
"Bravo! now we shall manage something. If you had been like that years
ago when I used to go to you, don't you remember, to beg you to smooth
things down--but you would never see it, till the smash came."

"I wish," said John, not without a little bitterness, "that I could
persuade you how little influence I have. There are some women, I
suppose, who take advice when it is given to them; but the women whom I
have ever had anything to do with, I am sorry to say----"

"I'll promise," cried Lady Mariamne, putting her hands and rings
together in an attitude of supplication, "to do what you tell me
faithfully, if you'll advise me where I'll find the boy. Oh, let Nell
alone, if you want to keep her to yourself--I sha'n't spoil sport, Mr.
Tatham, I promise you," she cried, with her shrill laugh; "only tell me
where I'll find the boy. What is it you want, Dolly, coming after me
like a policeman? Don't you see I am busy? We are sitting out the dance,
Mr. Tatham and I."

Dolly did not join in her mother's laugh nor unbend in the least. "As
there is no dancing," she said, "and everybody is going, I thought you
would prefer to go too."

"But we shall see you to-morrow, Mr. Tatham? Now, I cannot take any
refusal. You must come, if it were only for Toto's sake; and Dolly will
go out, I hope, on one of her great works and will not come to disturb
us, just when I have persuaded you to speak--for you were just going
to open your mouth. Now you know you were! Five o'clock to-morrow,
Mr. Tatham, whatever happens. Now remember! and you are to tell me
everything." She held up her finger to him, half threatening, half
coaxing, and then, with a peal of laughter, yielded to Dolly, and was
taken away.

"I did not know, Tatham," said the Judge who was his host, "that you
were on terms of such friendship with Lady Mariamne."

"Nor did I," said John Tatham, with a yawn.

"Queer thing this is about that old business, in which her brother was
mixed up--haven't you heard? one of those companies that came to smash
somewhere about twenty years ago. The manager absconded, and there was
something queer about the books. Well, the fellow, the manager, has been
caught at last, and there will be a trial. It's in your way--you will be
offered a brief, no doubt, with refr