your mercy now? Bah! I shall make myself a thorn in
your sides yet."

"She has got scent of the second marriage," whispered Mr. Dark to me.

There could be no doubt of it. She had evidently been listening at the
door on the night when my master came back longer than I had supposed.
She must have heard those words about "the new wife"--she might even
have seen the effect of them on Mr. James Smith.

"We do not at present propose to charge Josephine Durand with perjury,"
said the lawyer, "but with another offense, for which it is important to
try her immediately, in order to effect the restoration of property that
has been stolen. I charge her with stealing from her mistress, while
in her service at Darrock Hall, a pair of bracelets, three rings, and a
dozen and a half of lace pocket-handkerchiefs. The articles in question
were taken this morning from between the mattresses of her bed; and a
letter was found in the same place which clearly proves that she had
represented the property as belonging to herself, and that she had tried
to dispose of it to a purchaser in London." While he was speaking, Mr.
Dark produced the jewelry, the handkerchiefs and the letter, and laid
them before the justice.

Even Josephine's extraordinary powers of self-control now gave way at
last. At the first words of the unexpected charge against her she struck
her hands together violently, gnashed her sharp white teeth, and burst
out with a torrent of fierce-sounding words in some foreign language,
the meaning of which I did not understand then and cannot explain now.

"I think that's checkmate for marmzelle," whispered Mr. Dark, with his
invariable wink. "Suppose you go back to the Hall, now, William, and
draw a jug of that very remarkable old ale of yours? I'll be after you
in five minutes, as soon as the charge is made out."

I could hardly realize it when I found myself walking back to Darrock a
free man again.

In a quarter of an hour's time Mr. Dark joined me, and drank to my
health, happiness and prosperity in three separate tumblers. After
performing this ceremony, he wagged his head and chuckled with an
appearance of such excessive enjoyment that I could not avoid remarking
on his high spirits.

"It's the case, William--it's the beautiful neatness of the case that
quite intoxicates me. Oh, Lord, what a happiness it is to be concerned
in such a job as this!" cries Mr. Dark, slapping his stumpy hands on his
fat knees in a sort of e