I of course vehemently opposed this demand, and broadly hinted that the witness was purposely kept out of the way.

“Will my learned friend,” said Mr. P ——­ with one of his sliest sneers, “inform us what motive the defendant could possibly have to keep back a witness so necessary to him?”

“Elizabeth Wareing,” I curtly replied, “may not, upon reflection, be deemed a safe witness to subject to the ordeal of a cross-examination.  But to settle the matter, my lord,” I exclaimed, “I have here an affidavit of the plaintiff’s attorney, in which he states that he has no doubt of being able to find this important witness if time be allowed him for the purpose; the defendant of course undertaking to call her when produced.”

A tremendous clamor of counsel hereupon ensued, and fierce and angry grew the war of words.  The hubbub was at last terminated by the judge recommending that, under the circumstances, “a juror should be withdrawn.”  This suggestion, after some demur, was agreed to.  One of the jurors was whispered to come out of the box; then the clerk of the court exclaimed, “My lord, there are only eleven men on the jury;” and by the aid of this venerable, if clumsy expedient, the cause of Woodley versus Thorndyke was de facto adjourned to a future day.

I had not long returned to the hotel, when I was waited upon by Mr. Wilford, senior, the father of the young man who had been forbidden to visit Dale Farm by Thorndyke.  His son, he informed me, was ill from chagrin and anxiety—­confined to his bed indeed; and Mary Woodley had refused, it seemed, to accept pecuniary aid from either the father or the son.  Would I endeavor to terminate the estrangement which had for some time unhappily existed, and persuade her to accept his, Wilford senior’s, freely-offered purse and services?  I instantly accepted both the mission and the large sum which the excellent man tendered.  A part of the money I gave Barnes to stimulate his exertions, and the rest I placed in the hand of Mary Woodley’s grandpapa, with a friendly admonition to him not to allow his grandchild to make a fool of herself; an exhortation which produced its effect in due season.

Summer passed away, autumn had come and gone, and the winter assizes were once more upon us.  Regular proceedings had been taken, and the action in ejectment of Woodley versus Thorndyke was once more on the cause list of the Chester circuit court, marked this time as a special jury case.  Indefatigable as Mr. Barnes had been in his search for Elizabeth Wareing, not the slightest trace of her could he discover; and I went into court, therefore, with but slight expectation of invalidating the, as I fully believed, fictitious will.  We had, however, obtained a good deal of information relative to the former history not only of the absent Mrs. Wareing, but of Thorndyke himself; and it was quite within the range of probabilities that something might come out, enabling me to use