said carelessly. "Let's get it over, or I shall be getting hungry, as
all these folks must be. There's a good pair of boots for anyone who has
the courage to wear them. I'm ready. Make an end of it."

And the landlady at the "Punch-Bowl" that night drank to his memory,
declaring that he had died game, as was fitting for a gentleman of the
road.




CHAPTER II


BARBARA LANISON

As the coach rolled heavily homewards towards St. James's Square, Lady
Bolsover speedily recovered from her anxiety concerning her niece; she
did not even reprimand her for getting lost in the crowd, and seemed to
take no interest whatever in the gentleman who had come to the rescue
and had not waited to be thanked. He could have been no person of
consequence, or he would not have neglected the opportunity of bowing
over her hand. She talked of nothing but the trial and the excellent
manner in which her friend Judge Marriott had conducted it. Some of his
witticisms she remembered and repeated with such excellent point that
her niece shuddered again as she had done when they fell from the
judge's lips.

"It was altogether horrible," said the girl. "I wonder why you made me
go."