a said, when she left her friend in the railway
carriage. "Not this evening, I think. I shall be so tired," Mrs.
Furnival had replied. "Then I shall come down to you," said Martha,
almost holloaing after her friend, as the train started. Mr. Furnival
would not have been displeased had he known the state of his wife's
mind at that moment towards her late visitor. During the whole of her
journey down to Hamworth she tried to think what she would say to
Lady Mason, but instead of so thinking her mind would revert to the
unpleasantness of Miss Biggs's friendship.

When she left the train at the Hamworth station she was solicited by
the driver of a public vehicle to use his fly, and having ascertained
from the man that he well knew the position of Orley Farm, she got
into the carriage and had herself driven to the residence of her
hated rival. She had often heard of Orley Farm, but she had never as
yet seen it, and now felt considerable anxiety both as regards the
house and its occupant.

"This is Orley Farm, ma'am," said the man, stopping at the gate.
"Shall I drive up?"

But at this moment the gate was opened by a decent, respectable
woman,--Mrs. Furnival would not quite have called her a lady,--who
looked hard at the fly as it turned on to the private road.

"Perhaps this lady could tell me," said Mrs. Furnival, putting out
her hand. "Is this where Lady Mason lives?"

The woman was Mrs. Dockwrath. On that day Samuel Dockwrath had gone
to London, but before starting he had made known to his wife with
fiendish glee that it had been at last decided by all the persons
concerned that Lady Mason should be charged with perjury, and tried
for that offence.

"You don't mean to say that the judges have said so?" asked poor
Miriam.

"I do mean to say that all the judges in England could not save her
from having to stand her trial, and it is my belief that all the
lawyers in the land cannot save her from conviction. I wonder whether
she ever thinks now of those fields which she took away from me!"

Then, when her master's back was turned, she put on her bonnet and
walked up to Orley Farm. She knew well that Lady Mason was at The
Cleeve, and believed that she was about to become the wife of Sir
Peregrine; but she knew also that Lucius was at home, and it might
be well to let him know what was going on. She had just seen Lucius
Mason when she was met by Mrs. Furnival's fly. She had seen Lucius
Mason, and the angry manner in