strong-featured.

"Dick told me I might come," he said. "Shall I trouble you? May I stay
with you awhile?"

The judge put out his hand friendlily, a little vaguely, much as he had
put it out to the fire. "Surely," he said, and the newcomer was all at
once aware of his look. He started.

"You're not well," he said. "You must take something--whiskey--Miller----"

The butler moved in the room making lights here and there, and he came
quickly.

"No," the judge said. "I don't want anything--I don't need anything.
It's not as you think. I'll tell you about it."

Miller was gone; Dick's father waited, his gaze fixed on the judge's
face anxiously, and for moments no word was spoken. The judge gazed into
the fire with the rapt, smiling look which had so startled his
brother-in-law. At length:

"I don't know how to tell you," he said. "There seem no words. Something
has happened, yet it's difficult to explain."

"Something happened?" the other repeated, bewildered but guarded. "I
don't understand. Has some one been here? Is it about--the trial?"

"No." A slight spasm twisted the smiling lines of the man's mouth, but
it was gone and the mouth smiled still.