"Do you mean to imply," demanded the General wrathfully, "that a common
circus rider like that, a rascally revolutionist into the bargain, is
better than this lady and myself, sir?"

"Well, hardly better than Corinna," replied the Judge. "Indeed, I was
about to add that the two most candid persons I know are Corinna and
Vetch. There is a good deal about Vetch, by the way, that reminds me of
Corinna."

"Father!" gasped Corinna. "Stephen, do you think he has gone out of his
mind?"

"That is the first sign that wisdom has broken its cage," commented her
father. "No, my dear, I did not mean that you look like him; you are far
handsomer. I meant simply that you both habitually speak the truth, and
because you speak the truth the world mistakes you for a successful
comedian and Vetch for a kind of political Robin Hood."

"Well, he is trying to hold us up in highwayman fashion, isn't he?"
asked Corinna.

"Does it look that way?" inquired the Judge, with his beaming smile
which cast an edge of genial irony on everything that he said. "On the
contrary, it seems to me that Vetch is telling us the things we have
known about ourselves for a very long time. He says the world might be a
better place if we would only take the trouble to make it so; if we
would only try to live up to our epitaphs, I believe he once remarked.
He says also, I understand, that he is trying to climb to the top over
somebody else; and when I say 'he' I mean, of course, his order or his