p in a jail on a false charge, no matter how great
may be the provocation. I drew a deep breath, and, having recovered
myself, outwardly at least, said--

"I hope you don't find the conditions here too intolerable?" "Oh, no,"
he answered. "It's beastly unpleasant, of course, but it might easily be
worse. I don't mind if it's only for a week or two; and I am really
encouraged by what Dr. Thorndyke said. I hope he wasn't being merely
soothing."

"You may take it that he was not. What he said, I am sure he meant. Of
course, you know I am not in his confidence--nobody is--but I gather
that he is satisfied with the defence he is preparing."

"If he is satisfied, I am," said Reuben, "and, in any case, I shall owe
him an immense debt of gratitude for having stood by me and believed in
me when all the world--except my aunt and Juliet--had condemned me."

He then went on to give me a few particulars of his prison life, and
when he had chatted for a quarter of an hour or so, I took my leave to
make way for Miss Gibson.

Her interview with him was not as long as I had expected, though, to be
sure, the conditions were not very favourable either for the exchange of
confidences or for utterances of a sentimental character. The
consciousness that one's conversation could be overheard by the
occupants of adjacent boxes destroyed all sense of privacy, to say
nothing of the disturbing influence of the warder in the alley-way.

When she rejoined me, her manner was abstracted and very depressed, a
circumstance that gave me considerable food for reflection as we made
our way in silence towards the main entrance. Had she found Reuben as
cool and matter-of-fact as I had? He was assuredly a very calm and
self-possessed lover, and it was conceivable that his reception of the
girl, strung up, as she was, to an acute pitch of emotion, might have
been somewhat in the nature of an anticlimax. And then, was it possible
that the feeling was on her side only? Could it be that the priceless
pearl of her love was cast before--I was tempted to use the colloquial
singular and call him an "unappreciative swine!" The thing was almost
unthinkable to me, and yet I was tempted to dwell upon it; for when a
man is in love--and I could no longer disguise my condition from
myself--he is inclined to be humble and to gather up thankfully the
treasure that is rejected of another.

I was brought up short in these reflections by the clank of the lock in
the gr