not feeling well enough to come herself, she sent me."

Miss Carlyle did not believe a word. "What business?" asked she
unceremoniously.

"It is nothing that could interest you. A trifling matter, relating to a
little money. It's nothing, indeed."

"Then, if it's nothing, why were you closeted so long with Archibald?"

"He was asking the particulars," replied Barbara, recovering her
equanimity.

Miss Carlyle sniffed, as she invariably did, when dissenting from a
problem. She was sure there was some mystery astir. She turned and
walked down the street with Barbara, but she was none the more likely to
get anything out of her.

Mr. Carlyle returned to his room, deliberated a few moments, and then
rang his bell. A clerk answered it.

"Go to the Buck's Head. If Mr. Hare and the other magistrates are there,
ask them to step over to me."

The young man did as he was bid, and came back with the noted justices
at his heels. They obeyed the summons with alacrity, for they believed
they had got themselves into a judicial scrape, and that Mr. Carlyle
alone could get them out of it.

"I will not request you to sit down," began Mr. Carlyle, "for it is