"Judge Marriott's wit horrible!" exclaimed Lady Bolsover. "Pray do not
say so in company, or you will be taken for a fool."

"I meant the trial--the whole thing. Why did we go?"

"Would you be altogether out of the fashion, Barbara?"

"Such fashion, yes, I think so."

"Ah, that's the drawback of living in the country," was the answer. "All
one's morals and manners smell of the soil, and a woman's attainments
are limited to the making of gooseberry wine and piecrusts. I was of
that pattern myself once, but, thank heaven! I married wisely and
escaped from it. You must do the same, Barbara."

"Indeed, I am not sure that I want to, and yet--"

"I am grateful for the reservation," said Lady Bolsover, "or I should be
compelled to think that all my care of you during these last few months
had been wasted."

"Oh, no; I have learnt many things--many things that it is good for me
to know. I have seen men and women who seem to live in another world to
the one I have knowledge of, a large and most interesting world, truly,
yet not altogether to my taste. Is it not a strange world that can enjoy
what we have witnessed to-day?"

"I must confess I enjoyed Judge Marriott hugely," was the answer, "and
the prisoner was a man, I'll say that for him. I almost regret not