never did it twice," said Bridget Bolster
triumphantly, as she sat down to the supper table.

I am inclined to think, that upon the whole the company in Great St.
Helen's became more happy as the conviction grew upon them that a
great and mysterious crime had been committed, which had baffled two
courts of law, and had at last thrust itself forth into the open
daylight through the workings of the criminal's conscience. When
Kantwise had completed his story, the time had come in which it
behoved Mrs. Moulder to descend to the lower regions, and give some
aid in preparation of the supper. During her absence the matter
was discussed in every way, and on her return, when she was laden
with good things, she found that all the party was contented except
Moulder and her brother.

"It's a very terrible thing," said Mrs. Smiley, later in the evening,
as she sat with her steaming glass of rum and water before her. "Very
terrible indeed; ain't it, John? I do wish now I'd gone down and
see'd her, I do indeed. Don't you, Mrs. Moulder?"

"If all this is true I should like just to have had a peep at her."

"At any rate we shall have pictures of her in all the papers," said
Mrs. Smiley.

CHAPTER LXXVIII

THE LAST OF THE LAWYERS

"I should have done my duty by you, Mr. Mason, which those men have
not, and you would at this moment have been the owner of Orley Farm."

It will easily be known that these words were spoken by Mr.
Dockwrath, and that they were addressed to Joseph Mason. The two
men were seated together in Mr. Mason's lodgings at Alston, late
on the morning after the verdict had been given, and Mr. Dockwrath
was speaking out his mind with sufficient freedom. On the previous
evening he had been content to put up with the misery of the
unsuccessful man, and had not added any reproaches of his own. He
also had been cowed by the verdict, and the two had been wretched and
crestfallen together. But the attorney since that had slept upon the
matter, and had bethought himself that he at any rate would make out
his little bill. He could show that Mr. Mason had ruined their joint
affairs by his adherence to those London attorneys. Had Mr. Mason
listened to the advice of his new adviser all would have been well.
So at least Dockwrath was prepared to declare, finding that by so
doing he would best pave the way for his own important claim.

But Mr. Mason was not a man to be bullied with tame endurance. "The
firm bears t