wn again, through the blinds of course.
Marjorie Thomas was on the lawyer's knee, and Marjorie Carruthers on the
veteran's. The Captain's daughter was combing Coristine's brown hair
with her fingers, and pointing the ends of his moustache, much to the
other Marjorie's amusement and the lawyer's evident satisfaction. Miss
Carmichael inwardly called her cousin a saucy little minx, resenting her
familiarities with a man who was, of course, nothing to her, in a way
that startled herself. Why had he not saved somebody's life and been
wounded, instead of that poetic fossil of a Wilkinson? But, no; it was
better not, for, had he saved the colonel's life, Cecile would have been
with him, and that she could not bear to think of. Then, she remembered
what Corry had told her of the advertisement to the next of kin. Perhaps
she would be wealthy yet, and more than his equal socially, and then she
could condescend, as a great lady, and put a treasure in those poor
gloved hands. Where would they all have been without these hands, all
scarred and blistered to save them from death? Everybody was very unkind
to little Marjorie's Eugene, and failed to recognize his claims upon
their gratitude. Oh, that saucy little minx, with her grand assumptions
of proprietorship, as if she owned him, forsooth!

Mr. Bangs called the justices to business. There was a prisoner to
examine, and two charred masses of humanity for the coroner to sit upon.
So a messenger was sent off to summon the long-suffering Johnson,
Newberry, and Pawkins, for the coroner's inquest, and the doctor was
carried back into the office for the examination of the prisoner, Mark
Davis. The two Squires sat in appropriate chairs behind an official
table, at one side of which Mr. Bangs took his seat as clerk. Constable
Rigby produced his prisoner, loaded with fetters. "Has this man had his
breakfast, Rigby?" asked the Squire. "Certainly not, Squire," replied
the constable. "Then take him at once to the kitchen, take off these
chains and handcuffs, and let him have all that he can eat," replied the
J.P., sternly. The corporal's sense of rectitude was offended. The idea
of feeding criminals and releasing them from irons! The next thing would
be to present them with a medal and a clasp for each new offence against
society. But, orders were orders, and, however iniquitous, had to be
obeyed; so Davis was allowed to stretch his limbs, and partake of a
bountiful, if somewhat late, morning me