'That's as may be,' said he, looking round at it from the corner of his eyes.
'And do you mean to say that all the barristers in London will make me say that it's made of cloth? It's ridic'lous—nothing short of ridic'lous.'
'You've never tried, my dear,' said Moulder.
'I don't know about being your dear, Mr. Moulder———'
'Nor yet don't I neither, Mrs. Smiley,' said the wife.
'Mr. Kenneby's my dear, and I aint ashamed to own him,—before men and women. But if he allows hisself to be hocussed in that way, I don't know but what I shall be ashamed. I call it hocussing—just hocussing.'
'So it is, ma'am,' said Kantwise, 'only this, you know, if I hocus you, why you hocus me in return; so it isn't so very unfair, you know.'
'Unfair!' said Moulder. 'It's the fairest thing that is. It's the bulwark of the British Constitution.'
'What! being badgered and browbeat?' asked Kenneby, who was thinking within himself that if this were so he did not care if he lived somewhere beyond the protection of that blessed Ægis.
'Trial by jury is,' said Moulder. 'And how can you have trial by jury if the witnesses are not to be cross-questioned?'
To this position no one was at the moment ready to give an answer, and Mr. Moulder enjoyed a triumph over his audience. That he lived in a happy and blessed country Moulder was well aware, and with those blessings he did not wish any one to tamper. 'Mother,' said a fastidious child to his parent, 'the bread is gritty and the butter tastes of turnips.' 'Turnips indeed,—and gritty!' said the mother. 'Is it not a great thing to have bread and butter at all?' I own that my sympathies are with the child. Bread and butter is a great thing; but I would have it of the best if that be possible.
After that Mr. Kantwise was allowed to dilate upon the subject which had brought him there. Mr. Dockwrath had been summoned to Bedford Row, and there had held a council of war together with Mr. Joseph Mason and Mr. Matthew Round. According to his own story Mr. Matthew had quite come round and been forced to acknowledge all that Dockwrath had done for the cause. In Bedford Row there was no doubt whatever as to the verdict. 'That woman Bolster is quite clear that she only signed one deed,' said Kantwise.
'I shall say nothing—nothing here,' said Kenneby.
⟨'⟩Quite right, John,' said Mrs. Smiley. 'Your feelings on the occasion become you.'
'I'll lay an even bet she's acquitted,' said Moulder. 'And I'll do it in a ten-p'und note.'
