"Minor or major, ma'am, makes very little difference to us. She can plead
that hereafter, you know. In the meantime, miss, please to step into this
coach," replied the officer, holding the door open.

"But she's a person of unsound mind," screamed the lady, as Clara,
nothing loath, sprang into the vehicle.

"So are most people that do business with our establishment," responded
the imperturbable official, as he shut and fastened the door. "Here is my
card, sir," he added, addressing the attorney, who now came up. "You see
where to find the lady, if her friends wish to give bail to the sheriff,
or, what is always more satisfactory, pay the debt and costs." He then
jumped on the box, his follower got up behind, and away drove the coach,
leaving the discomfited major and his fiery better-half in a state of the
blankest bewilderment!

"Why, what _is_ the meaning of this?" at length gasped Mrs. Brandon,
fiercely addressing the attorney, as if _he_, were a _particeps criminis_
in the affair.

"The meaning, my dear madame, is, that Miss Clara Brandon is arrested for
debt, and carried off to a sponging-house; and that unless you pay the
money, or file bail, she will tomorrow be lodged in jail," replied the
unmoved man of law.

"Bail! money! How are we to do either in London, away from home?"
demanded the major with, for him, much emotion.

I did not wait to hear more, but, almost suffocated with laughter at the
success of Ferret's audacious _ruse_, hastened over to the Temple. I was