ious exertions that they were obliged to take
a quiet day. And thus Philip was left in the Temple, of all places in
the world, on the day when his mother was to appear in the law-courts
close by--on the day of all others when if she could have sent him for
twenty-four hours to the end of the earth she would have done so--on the
day when so terrible was the stress and strain upon herself that for
once in the world even Pippo had gone as completely out of her mind as
if he had not been.

The boy looked about him for awhile, and reflected what to do, and
then he started out into the Strand, conscientiously waiting for the
Marshalls before he should visit the Temple and all its historical ways;
and then he was amused and excited by seeing a barrister or two in wig
and gown pass by; and then he thought of the trial in the newspapers,
in which somebody who, like himself, was called Philip Compton, was
involved. Philip was still lingering, wondering if he could get into the
court, a little shy of trying, but gradually growing eager, thinking at
least that he would try and get a sight of the wonderful grand building,
still so new, when he suddenly saw Simmons, his uncle John's clerk,
passing through the quadrangle of the law-courts. Here was his chance.
He rushed forward and caught the clerk by the arm, who was in a great
hurry, as everybody seemed to be. "Oh, Simmons, can you get me into that
Brown trial?" cried Philip. "Brown!" Simmons said. "Mr. Tatham is not on
in that." "Oh, never mind about Mr. Tatham," said the boy. "Can't you
get me in? I have never seen a trial, and I take an interest in that."
"I advise you," said Simmons, "to wait for one that your uncle's in."
"Can't you get me in?" said Philip, impatiently: and this touched the
pride of Simmons, who had many friends, if not in high places, yet in
low.

CHAPTER XLIV.

Philip had never been in a court of law before. I am almost as ignorant
as he was, yet I cannot imagine anything more deeply interesting than
to find one's self suddenly one of a crowded assembly trying more or
less--for is not the public but a larger jury, sometimes contradicting
the verdict of the other, and when it does so almost invariably winning
the cause?--a fellow-creature, following out the traces of his crime or
his innocence, looking on while a human drama is unrolled, often far
more interesting than any dramatic representation of life. He was
confused for the moment by the crowd,