e, I trust, the
day after this letter reaches you; but nevertheless I cannot debar
myself from the satisfaction of writing. I am not happy, for I am
dissatisfied with what they are doing for my mother; and it is only
when I think of you, and the assurance of your love, that I can feel
anything like content. It is not a pleasant thing to sit by and
hear one's mother charged with the foulest frauds that practised
villains can conceive! Yet I have had to bear it, and have heard
no denial of the charge in true honest language. To-day, when the
solicitor-general was heaping falsehoods on her name, I could hardly
refrain myself from rushing at his throat. Let me have a line of
comfort from you, and then I will be with you on Friday."

That line of comfort never came, nor did Lucius on the Friday make
his intended visit. Miss Furnival had determined, some day or two
before this, that she would not write to Lucius again till this
trial was over; and even then it might be a question whether a
correspondence with the heir of Noningsby would not be more to her
taste.

CHAPTER LXXI

SHOWING HOW JOHN KENNEBY AND BRIDGET BOLSTER BORE THEMSELVES IN COURT

On the next morning they were all in their places at ten o'clock,
and the crowd had been gathered outside the doors of the court from
a much earlier hour. As the trial progressed the interest in it
increased, and as people began to believe that Lady Mason had in
truth forged a will, so did they the more regard her in the light of
a heroine. Had she murdered her husband after forging his will, men
would have paid half a crown apiece to have touched her garments, or
a guinea for the privilege of shaking hands with her. Lady Mason had
again taken her seat with her veil raised, with Mrs. Orme on one side
of her and her son on the other. The counsel were again ranged on the
seats behind, Mr. Furnival sitting the nearest to the judge, and Mr.
Aram again occupied the intermediate bench, so placing himself that
he could communicate either with his client or with the barristers.
These were now their established places, and great as was the crowd,
they found no difficulty in reaching them. An easy way is always made
for the chief performers in a play.

This was to be the great day as regarded the evidence. "It is a
case that depends altogether on evidence," one young lawyer said to
another. "If the counsel know how to handle the witnesses, I should
say she is safe." The importan