and mantilly, like the rest of mankind.”  Which, indeed, she did,—­and her bonnet rivalled the coiffures of Paris in brilliancy and procrastination; for it never came in sight till long after its little mistress.  However, of that by-and-by.  I was only too glad that Aunt Allen had not sent me another silk gown “with her best love, and, as she was only seventy, perhaps it might be useful.”  No,—­here was the fifty-dollar note, thank Plutus!

But then, what to do with it?  Sleeping, that was the question.  Waking, that was the same.

At twelve o’clock Mr. Sampson came to dine with us, and to say he was the happiest of men.

“That is, of course, I shall be, next week,” said he, smiling and correcting himself.  “But I am rather happy now; for I’ve got my case, and Shore has sailed for Australia.  Good riddance, and may he never touch these shores any more!”

He had been shaking hands with everybody, he said,—­and was so glad to be out of it!

“Now that it is all over, I wish you would tell me why you are so glad, when you honestly believe the man guilty,” said I.

“Oh, my child, you are supposing the law to be perfect.  Suppose the old English law to be in force now, making stealing a capital offence.  You wouldn’t hang a starving woman or child who stole the baker’s loaf from your window-sill this morning before Polly had time to take it in, would you?  Yet this was the law until quite lately.”

“After all, I don’t quite see either how you can bear to defend him, if you think him guilty, or be glad to have him escape, if he is,—­I mean, supposing the punishment to be a fair one.”

“Because I am a frail and erring man, Delphine, and like to get my case.  If my client is guilty,—­as we will suppose, for the sake of argument, he is,—­he will not be likely to stop his evil career merely because he has got off now, and will be caught and hanged next time, possibly.  If he does stop sinning, why, so much the better to have time for repentance, you know.”

“Don’t laugh,—­now be serious.”

“I am.  Once, I made up my mind as to my client’s guilt from what he told and did not tell me, and went into court with a heavy heart.  However, in the course of the trial, evidence, totally unexpected to all of us, was brought forward, and my client’s innocence fully established.  It was a good lesson to me.  I learned by experience that the business of counsel is to defend or to prosecute, and not to judge.  The judge and jury are stereoscopic and see the whole figure.”

How wise and nice it sounded!  Any way, I wasn’t a stereoscope, for I saw but one side,—­the one “he” was on.

Monday morning.  And we were to be married in the evening,—­by ourselves, —­nobody else.  That was all the stipulation my lover made.

“I will be married morning, noon, or night, as you say, and dress and behave as you say; but not in a crowd of even three persons.”