rescue. Alfred went back to Oxford to read for his first class, and
Julia to her district visiting, while the terrible delays of the law
went on. Alfred had begun to believe trial by jury would never be
allowed him, and when at last, after many postponements, the trial did
come on, he was being examined in the schools, and refused to come till
his counsel had actually opened the case. Mr. Thomas Hardie, Alfred's
uncle, was the defendant, for it was proved he had authorised Alfred's
arrest.

A detective had been employed to find Mr. Barkington, a little man in
Julia's district, whom the lawyers suspected might be useful; and when
the trial was half over, he led them all in great excitement to the back
slums of Westminster. Mr. Barkington, _alias_ Noah Skinner, was wanted
by another client of his.

The room was full of an acrid vapour, and a mummified figure sat at the
table, dead this many a day of charcoal fumes; in his hand a banker's
receipt to David Dodd, Esq., for £14,000. The lawyer was handing it to
Julia, having just found a will bequeathing all Skinner had in the world
to her, with his blessing, when a solemn voice said: "No; it is mine."

A keen cry from Julia's heart, and in an instant she was clinging round
her father's neck. Edward could only get at his hand. Instinct told them
Heaven had given them back their father, mind and all.

Alfred Hardie slipped out, and ran like a deer to tell Mrs. Dodd.

Husband and wife met alone in Mrs. Dodd's room. No eyes ventured to
witness a scene so strange, so sacred.