aving merely
intimated to the baronet the fact of his having engaged the services
of Mr. Chaffanbrass and Mr. Solomon Aram. "You will not see Lady
Mason?" Sir Peregrine had asked. "Thank you; I do not know that
I need trouble her," Mr. Furnival had answered. "You of course
will explain to her how the case at present stands. I fear she
must reconcile herself to the fact of a trial. You are aware, Sir
Peregrine, that the offence imputed is one for which bail will be
taken. I should propose yourself and her son. Of course I should be
happy to lend my own name, but as I shall be on the trial, perhaps it
may be as well that this should be avoided."

Bail will be taken! These words were dreadful in the ears of the
expectant bridegroom. Had it come to this; that there was a question
whether or no she should be locked up in a prison, like a felon? But
nevertheless his heart did not misgive him. Seeing how terribly she
was injured by others, he felt himself bound by the stronger law to
cling to her himself. Such was the special chivalry of the man.

Mr. Furnival on his return to London thought almost more of Sir
Peregrine than he did either of Lady Mason or of himself. Was it not
a pity? Was it not a thousand pities that that aged noble gentleman
should be sacrificed? He had felt angry with Sir Peregrine when the
tidings were first communicated to him; but now, as he journeyed up
to London this feeling of anger was transferred to his own client.
This must be her doing, and such doing on her part, while she was in
her present circumstances, was very wicked. And then he remembered
her guilt,--her probable guilt, and his brow became very black. Her
supposed guilt had not been horrible to him while he had regarded it
as affecting herself alone, and in point of property affecting Joseph
Mason and her son Lucius. He could look forward, sometimes almost
triumphantly, to the idea of washing her--so far as this world's
washing goes--from that guilt, and setting her up again clear before
the world, even though in doing so he should lend a hand in robbing
Joseph Mason of his estate. But this dragging down of another--and
such another--head into the vortex of ruin and misery was horrible to
him. He was not straitlaced, or mealy-mouthed, or overburthened with
scruples. In the way of his profession he could do many a thing at
which--I express a single opinion with much anxious deference--at
which an honest man might be scandalized if it cam