ce of this handling was felt by every
one, and therefore it was understood that the real game would
be played out on this middle day. It had been all very well for
Chaffanbrass to bully Dockwrath and make the wretched attorney
miserable for an hour or so, but that would have but little bearing
on the verdict. There were two persons there who were prepared to
swear that on a certain day they had only signed one deed. So much
the solicitor-general had told them, and nobody doubted that it
would be so. The question now was this, would Mr. Furnival and Mr.
Chaffanbrass succeed in making them contradict themselves when they
had so sworn? Could they be made to say that they had signed two
deeds, or that they might have done so?

It was again the duty of Mr. Furnival to come first upon the
stage,--that is to say, he was to do so as soon as Sir Richard had
performed his very second-rate part of eliciting the evidence in
chief. Poor John Kenneby was to be the first victim, and he was
placed in the box before them all very soon after the judge had
taken his seat. Why had he not emigrated to Australia, and escaped
all this,--escaped all this, and Mrs. Smiley also? That was John
Kenneby's reflection as he slowly mounted the two steps up into
the place of his torture. Near to the same spot, and near also to
Dockwrath who had taken these two witnesses under his special charge,
sat Bridget Bolster. She had made herself very comfortable that
morning with buttered toast and sausages; and when at Dockwrath's
instance Kenneby had submitted to a slight infusion of Dutch
courage,--a bottle of brandy would not have sufficed for the
purpose,--Bridget also had not refused the generous glass. "Not that
I wants it," said she, meaning thereby to express an opinion that she
could hold her own, even against the great Chaffanbrass, without any
such extraneous aid. She now sat quite quiet, with her hands crossed
on her knees before her, and her eyes immovably fixed on the table
which stood in the centre of the court. In that position she remained
till her turn came; and one may say that there was no need for fear
on account of Bridget Bolster.

And then Sir Richard began. What would be the nature of Kenneby's
direct evidence the reader pretty well knows. Sir Richard took a long
time in extracting it, for he was aware that it would be necessary
to give his witness some confidence before he came to his main
questions. Even to do this was difficult,