her off."

"But he expressly admitted that this woman Bolster's evidence is
conclusive."

"Yes; he was so driven into a corner that he could not help admitting
that. The woman had been too many for him, and he found that he
couldn't cushion her. But do you mind my words, Mr. Mason. He intends
that you shall be beaten. It's as plain as the nose on your face. You
can read it in the very look of him, and in every tone of his voice.
At any rate I can. I'll tell you what it is"--and then he squeezed
very close to Mr. Mason--"he and old Furnival understand each other
in this matter like two brothers. Of course Round will have his bill
against you. Win or lose, he'll get his costs out of your pocket. But
he can make a deuced pretty thing out of the other side as well. Let
me tell you, Mr. Mason, that when notes for a thousand pounds are
flying here and there, it isn't every lawyer that will see them pass
by him without opening his hand."

"I do not think that Mr. Round would take a bribe," said Mr. Mason
very stiffly.

"Wouldn't he? Just as a hound would a pat of butter. It's your own
look-out, you know, Mr. Mason. I haven't got an estate of twelve
hundred a year depending on it. But remember this;--if she escapes
now, Orley Farm is gone for ever."

All this was extremely disagreeable to Mr. Mason. In the first place
he did not at all like the tone of equality which the Hamworth
attorney had adopted; he did not like to acknowledge that his affairs
were in any degree dependent on a man of whom he thought so badly as
he did of Mr. Dockwrath; he did not like to be told that Round and
Crook were rogues,--Round and Crook whom he had known all his life;
but least of all did he like the feeling of suspicion with which,
in spite of himself, this man had imbued him, or the fear that his
victim might at last escape him. Excellent, therefore, as had been
the evidence with which Bridget Bolster had declared herself ready
to give in his favour, Mr. Mason was not a contented man when he sat
down to his solitary beefsteak in Soho Square.

CHAPTER XXXIII

THE ANGEL OF LIGHT

In speaking of the character and antecedents of Felix Graham I have
said that he was moulding a wife for himself. The idea of a wife thus
moulded to fit a man's own grooves, and educated to suit matrimonial
purposes according to the exact views of the future husband was by no
means original with him. Other men have moulded their wives, but I do
not kno