"For good!" groaned Judith; "I should say for ill. Why does the Queen
let there be a Lord Chancellor?"

"It is not the Lord Chancellor's fault, Judith. He only administers the
law."

"Why couldn't he just as well have given it _for_ your papa, as against
him?"

"I suppose he considers that the law is on the other side," sighed
Constance.

Judith, with a pettish movement, returned to her kitchen; and at that
moment Hamish came downstairs. He had changed his dress, and had a pair
of new white gloves in his hand.

"Are you going out to-night, Hamish?"

There was a stress on the word "to-night," and Hamish marked it. "I
promised, you know, Constance. And my staying away would do no good; it
could not improve things. Fare you well, my pretty sister. Tell mamma I
shall be home by eleven."

"It'll be a sad cut-down for 'em all," muttered Judith, gazing at
Hamish round the kitchen door-post. "Where he'll find money for his
white gloves and things now, is beyond my telling, the darling boy! If
I could but get to that Lord Chancellor!"

Had you possessed the privilege of living in Helstonleigh at the time