THE TWO JUDGES.
Felix Graham as he left the Alston court-house on the close of the
first day of the trial was not in a happy state of mind. He did not
actually accuse himself of having omitted any duty which he owed to
his client; but he did accuse himself of having undertaken a duty for
which he felt himself to be manifestly unfit. Would it not have been
better, as he said to himself, for that poor lady to have had any
other possible advocate than himself? Then as he passed out in the
company of Mr. Furnival and Mr. Chaffanbrass, the latter looked at
him with a scorn which he did not know how to return. In his heart he
could do so; and should words be spoken between them on the subject,
he would be well able and willing enough to defend himself. But had
he attempted to bandy looks with Mr. Chaffanbrass, it would have
seemed even to himself that he was proclaiming his resolution to put
himself in opposition to his colleagues.
He felt as though he were engaged to fight a battle in which truth
and justice, nay heaven itself must be against him. How can a man
put his heart to the proof of an assertion in the truth of which he
himself has no belief? That though guilty this lady should be treated
with the utmost mercy compatible with the law;--for so much, had her
guilt stood forward as acknowledged, he could have pleaded with all
the eloquence that was in him. He could still pity her, sympathise
with her, fight for her on such ground as that; but was it possible
that he, believing her to be false, should stand up before the crowd
assembled in that court, and use such intellect as God had given him
in making others think that the false and the guilty one was true and
innocent, and that those accusers were false and guilty whom he knew
to be true and innocent?
It had been arranged that Baron Maltby should stay that night at
Noningsby. The brother-judges therefore occupied the Noningsby
carriage together, and Graham was driven back in a dog-cart by
Augustus Staveley.
"Well, old boy," said Augustus, "you did not soil your conscience
much by bullying that fellow."
"No, I did not," said Graham; and then he was silent.
"Chaffanbrass made an uncommonly ugly show of the Hamworth attorney,"
said Augustus, after a pause; but to this Graham at first made no
answer.
"If I were on the jury," continued the other, "I would not believe a
single word that came from that fellow's mouth, unless it were fully
supported by other testimony. Nor will the jury believe him."
"I tell you what, Staveley," said Graham, "you will oblige me greatly
in this matter if you will not speak to me of the trial till it is
over."
"I beg your pardon."
"No; don't do that. Nothing can be more natural than that you and
I should discuss it together in all its bearings. But there are
reasons, which I will explain to you afterwards, why I would rather
not do so."
"All right," said Augustus. "I'll not say another word."
"And for my part, I will get through the work as well as I may." And
then they both sat silent in the gig till they came to the corner of
Noningsby wall.
"And is that other subject tabooed also?" said Augustus.
"What other subject?"
"That as to which we said something when you were last
here,--touching my sister Madeline."
Graham felt that his face was on fire, but he did not know how to
answer. "In that it is for you to decide whether or no there should
be silence between us," he said at last.
"I certainly do not wish that there should be any secret between us,"
said Augustus.
"Then there shall be none. It is my intention to make an offer to
her before I leave Noningsby. I can assure you for your satisfaction,
that my hopes do not run very high."
"For my satisfaction, Felix! I don't know why you should suppose me
to be anxious that you should fail." And as he so spoke he stopped
his horse at the hall-door, and there was no time for further speech.
"Papa has been home a quarter of an hour," said Madeline, meeting
them in the hall.
"Yes, he had the pull of us by having his carriage ready," said her
brother. "We had to wait for the ostler."
"He says that if you are not ready in ten minutes he will go to
dinner without you. Mamma and I are dressed." And as she spoke she
turned round with a smile to Felix, making him feel that both she and
her father were treating him as though he were one of the family.
"Ten minutes will be quite enough for me," said he.
"If the governor only would sit down," said Augustus, "it would be
all right. But that's just what he won't do. Mad, do send somebody to
help me to unpack." And then they all bustled away, so that the pair
of judges might not be kept waiting for their food.
Felix Graham hurried up stairs, three steps at a time, as though all
his future success at Noningsby depended on his being down in the
drawing-room within the period of minutes stipulated by the judge.
As he dressed himself with the utmost rapidity, thinking perhaps not
so much as he should have done of his appearance in the eyes of his
lady-love, he endeavoured to come to some resolve as to the task
which was before him. How was he to find an opportunity of speaking
his mind to Madeline, if, during the short period of his sojourn at
Noningsby, he left the house every morning directly after breakfast,
and returned to it in the evening only just in time for dinner?
When he entered the drawing-room both the judges were there, as was
also Lady Staveley and Madeline. Augustus alone was wanting. "Ring
the bell, Graham," the judge said, as Felix took his place on the
corner of the rug. "Augustus will be down about supper-time." And
then the bell was rung and the dinner ordered.
"Papa ought to remember," said Madeline, "that he got his carriage
first at Alston."
"I heard the wheels of the gig," said the judge. "They were just two
minutes after us."
"I don't think Augustus takes longer than other young men," said Lady
Staveley.
"Look at Graham there. He can't be supposed to have the use of all
his limbs, for he broke half a dozen of them a month ago; and yet
he's ready. Brother Maltby, give your arm to Lady Staveley. Graham,
if you'll take Madeline, I'll follow alone." He did not call her Miss
Staveley, as Felix specially remarked, and so remarking, pressed the
little hand somewhat closer to his side. It was the first sign of
love he had ever given her, and he feared that some mark of anger
might follow it. There was no return to his pressure;--not the
slightest answer was made with those sweet finger points; but there
was no anger. "Is your arm quite strong again?" she asked him as they
sat down, as soon as the judge's short grace had been uttered.
"Fifteen minutes to the second," said Augustus, bustling into the
room, "and I think that an unfair advantage has been taken of me. But
what can a juvenile barrister expect in the presence of two judges?"
And then the dinner went on, and a very pleasant little dinner-party
it was.
Not a word was said, either then or during the evening, or on the
following morning, on that subject which was engrossing so much of
the mind of all of them. Not a word was spoken as to that trial which
was now pending, nor was the name of Lady Mason mentioned. It was
understood even by Madeline that no allusion could with propriety be
made to it in the presence of the judge before whom the cause was now
pending, and the ground was considered too sacred for feet to tread
upon it. Were it not that this feeling is so general an English judge
and English counsellors would almost be forced to subject themselves
in such cases to the close custody which jurymen are called upon to
endure. But, as a rule, good taste and good feeling are as potent as
locks and walls.
"Do you know, Mr. Graham," said Madeline, in that sort of whisper
which a dinner-table allows, "that Mrs. Baker says you have cut her
since you got well."
"I! I cut one of my very best friends! How can she say anything so
untrue? If I knew where she lived I'd go and pay her a visit after
dinner."
"I don't think you need do that,--though she has a very snug little
room of her own. You were in it on Christmas-day when we had the
snapdragon,--when you and Marion carried away the dishes."
"I remember. And she is base enough to say that I have cut her? I did
see her for a moment yesterday, and then I spoke to her."
"Ah, but you should have had a long chat with her. She expects you
to go back over all the old ground, how you were brought in helpless,
how the doctor came to you, and how you took all the messes she
prepared for you like a good boy. I'm afraid, Mr. Graham, you don't
understand old women."
"Nor young ones either," it was on his tongue to say, but he did not
say it.
"When I was a young man," said the baron, carrying on some
conversation which had been general at the table, "I never had an
opportunity of breaking my ribs out hunting."
"Perhaps if you had," said Augustus, "you might have used it with
more effect than my friend here, and have deprived the age of one
of its brightest lights, and the bench of one of its most splendid
ornaments."
"Hear, hear, hear!" said his father.
"Augustus is coming out in a new character," said his mother.
"I am heartily obliged to him," said the baron. "But, as I was saying
before, these sort of things never came in my way. If I remember
right, my father would have thought I was mad had I talked of going
out hunting. Did you hunt, Staveley?"
When the ladies were gone the four lawyers talked about law, though
they kept quite clear of that special trial which was going on at
Alston. Judge Staveley, as we know, had been at the Birmingham
congress; but not so his brother the baron. Baron Maltby, indeed,
thought but little of the Birmingham doings, and was inclined to be a
little hard upon his brother in that he had taken a part in it.
"I think that the matter is one open to discussion," said the host.
"Well, I hope so," said Graham. "At any rate I have heard no
arguments which ought to make us feel that our mouths are closed."
"Arguments on such a matter are worth nothing at all," said the
baron. "A man with what is called a logical turn of mind may prove
anything or disprove anything; but he never convinces anybody. On any
matter that is near to a man's heart, he is convinced by the tenour
of his own thoughts as he goes on living, not by the arguments of a
logician, or even by the eloquence of an orator. Talkers are apt to
think that if their listener cannot answer them they are bound to
give way; but non-talkers generally take a very different view of the
subject."
"But does that go to show that a question should not be ventilated?"
asked Felix.
"I don't mean to be uncivil," said the baron, "but of all words in
the language there is none which I dislike so much as that word
ventilation. A man given to ventilating subjects is worse than a man
who has a mission."
"Bores of that sort, however," said Graham, "will show themselves
from time to time and are not easily put down. Some one will have a
mission to reform our courts of law, and will do it too."
"I only hope it may not be in my time," said the baron.
"I can't go quite so far as that," said the other judge. "But no
doubt we all have the same feeling more or less. I know pretty well
what my friend Graham is driving at."
"And in your heart you agree with me," said Graham.
"If you would carry men's heads with you they would do you more good
than their hearts," said the judge. And then as the wine bottles
were stationary, the subject was cut short and they went into the
drawing-room.
Graham had no opportunity that evening of telling his tale to
Madeline Staveley. The party was too large for such tale-telling or
else not large enough. And then the evening in the drawing-room was
over before it had seemed to begin; and while he was yet hoping that
there might be some turn in his favour, Lady Staveley wished him
good-night, and Madeline of course did the same. As he again pressed
her hand he could not but think how little he had said to her since
he had been in the house, and yet it seemed to him as though that
little had made him more intimate with her than he had ever found
himself before. He had made an attempt to separate himself from
the company by proposing to go and call on Mrs. Baker in her own
quarters; but Madeline had declared it to be too late for such an
expedition, explaining that when Mrs. Baker had no patient on hand
she was accustomed to go early to her bed. In the present instance,
however, she had been wrong, for when Felix reached the door of his
own room, Mrs. Baker was coming out of it.
"I was just looking if everything was right," said she. "It seems
natural to me to come and look after you, you know."
"And it is quite as natural to me to be looked after."
"Is it though? But the worst of you gentlemen when you get well is
that one has done with you. You go away, and then there's no more
about it. I always begrudge to see you get well for that reason."
"When you have a man in your power you like to keep him there."
"That's always the way with the women you know. I hope we shall see
one of them tying you by the leg altogether before long."
"I don't know anything about that," said Felix, sheepishly.
"Don't you? Well, if you don't I suppose nobody don't. But
nevertheless I did hear a little bird say--eh! Mr. Graham."
"Those little birds are the biggest liars in the world."
"Are they now? Well perhaps they are. And how do you think our Miss
Madeline is looking? She wasn't just well for one short time after
you went away."
"Has she been ill?"
"Well, not ill; not so that she came into my hands. She's looking
herself again now, isn't she?"
"She is looking, as she always does, uncommonly well."
"Do you remember how she used to come and say a word to you standing
at the door? Dear heart! I'll be bound now I care more for her than
you do."
"Do you?" said Graham.
"Of course I do. And then how angry her ladyship was with me,--as
though it were my fault. I didn't do it. Did I, Mr. Graham? But,
Lord love you, what's the use of being angry? My lady ought to have
remembered her own young days, for it was just the same thing with
her. She had her own way, and so will Miss Madeline." And then with
some further inquiries as to his fire, his towels, and his sheets,
Mrs. Baker took herself off.
Felix Graham had felt a repugnance to taking the gossiping old woman
openly into his confidence, and yet he had almost asked her whether
he might in truth count upon Madeline's love. Such at any rate had
been the tenour of his gossiping; but nevertheless he was by no means
certified. He had the judge's assurance in allowing him to be there;
he had the assurance given to him by Augustus in the few words spoken
to him at the door that evening; and he ought to have known that he
had received sufficient assurance from Madeline herself. But in truth
he knew nothing of the kind. There are men who are much too forward
in believing that they are regarded with favour; but there are others
of whom it may be said that they are as much too backward. The world
hears most of the former, and talks of them the most, but I doubt
whether the latter are not the more numerous.
The next morning of course there was a hurry and fuss at breakfast in
order that they might get off in time for the courts. The judges were
to take their seats at ten, and therefore it was necessary that they
should sit down to breakfast some time before nine. The achievement
does not seem to be one of great difficulty, but nevertheless it left
no time for lovemaking.
But for one instant Felix was able to catch Madeline alone in the
breakfast-parlour. "Miss Staveley," said he, "will it be possible
that I should speak to you alone this evening;--for five minutes?"
"Speak to me alone?" she said, repeating his words; and as she did
so she was conscious that her whole face had become suffused with
colour.
"Is it too much to ask?"
"Oh, no!"
"Then if I leave the dining-room soon after you have done so--"
"Mamma will be there, you know," she said. Then others came into the
room and he was able to make no further stipulation for the evening.
Madeline, when she was left alone that morning, was by no means
satisfied with her own behaviour, and accused herself of having been
unnecessarily cold to him. She knew the permission which had been
accorded to him, and she knew also--knew well--what answer would
be given to his request. In her mind the matter was now fixed. She
had confessed to herself that she loved him, and she could not now
doubt of his love to her. Why then should she have answered him with
coldness and doubt? She hated the missishness of young ladies, and
had resolved that when he asked her a plain question she would give
him a plain answer. It was true that the question had not been asked
as yet; but why should she have left him in doubt as to her kindly
feeling?
"It shall be but for this one day," she said to herself as she sat
alone in her room.