CHAPTER XXXIV.

I WILL TAKE YOUR WORD FOR NOTHING.

On the Saturday, Daniel was at the Serjeant's chambers early in the
morning,--long before the hour at which the Serjeant himself was wont
to attend. No time had in fact been named, and the tailor had chosen
to suppose that as he had been desired to be early in Bedford Square,
so had it also been intended that he should be early in the Temple.
For two hours he walked about the passages and the courts, thinking
ill of the lawyer for being so late at his business, and endeavouring
to determine what he would do with himself. He had not a friend in
the world, unless Lady Anna were a friend;--hardly an acquaintance.
And yet, remembering what his father had done, what he himself had
helped to do, he thought that he ought to have had many friends.
Those very persons who were now his bitterest enemies, the Countess
and all they who had supported her, should have been bound to him by
close ties. Yet he knew that it was impossible that they should not
hate him. He could understand their feelings with reference to their
own rank, though to him that rank was contemptible. Of course he was
alone. Of course he would fail. He was almost prepared to acknowledge
as much to the Serjeant. He had heard of a certain vessel that would
start in three days for the rising colony called New South Wales, and
he almost wished that he had taken his passage in her.

At ten o'clock he had been desired to call at eleven, and as the
clock struck eleven he knocked at the Serjeant's door. "Serjeant
Bluestone is not here yet," said the clerk, who was disposed to be
annoyed by the man's pertinacity.

"He told me to come early in the morning, and this is not early."

"He is not here yet, sir."

"You told me to come at eleven, and it is past eleven."

"It is one minute past, and you can sit down and wait for him if you
please." Daniel refused to wait, and was again about to depart in
his wrath, when the Serjeant appeared upon the stairs. He introduced
himself, and expressed regret that he should have found his visitor
there before him. Daniel, muttering something, followed the lawyer
into his room, and then the door was closed. He stood till he was
invited to sit, and was determined to make himself disagreeable. This
man was one of his enemies,--was one who no doubt thought little
of him because he was a tailor, who suspected his motives, and was
anxious to rob him of his bride. The Serje